JOHOR BAHRU: Police have arrested nine men believed to be involved in the abduction of a woman in Kulai here last month.
Johor police chief M. Kumar said that acting on information and intelligence, a team of officers from the Johor and Bukit Aman Criminal Investigation Department arrested the suspects, aged between 24 and 48, at various locations in Johor, Negeri Sembilan and Selangor from May 23 to 25.
He said police also recovered a significant amount of money believed to have been paid to secure the woman’s release.
“All of them have criminal and drug abuse records. Initial urine tests also revealed that six of them were positive for methamphetamine,“ he said in a statement today.
According to Kumar, the suspects were remanded for 14 days from May 24 until today to assist in the investigation, and the investigation papers were referred to the Deputy Public Prosecutor’s Office yesterday.
He said five suspects were charged today in the Sessions Court here and the Kulai Magistrate’s Court under Section 3(1) of the Kidnapping Act 1961 and Section 383 of the Penal Code, but all pleaded not guilty.
The other four suspects were released on bail bonds to be prosecution witnesses under Section 118 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
On May 16, a 30-year-old woman was abducted by three men armed with machetes from her residence in Kulai before being released at a bus station in Skudai later that same day.
The self-employed victim was unharmed and released after a ransom of RM111,000 was paid.
