12 security guards arrested for alleged role in killing

JAKARTA (JP): South Jakarta Police detectives spent almost a week tracking down the 12 alleged killers of Maulana Djoko Prayono, a 19-year-old youth, who was found last week barely alive in a dumpster.

Head of South Jakarta Police detectives Maj. Rycko Amelza Daniel said on Friday that all of the suspected killers worked at the same security guard agency, PT Sentinil Garda Semesta, which supplies satpam (security guards) to companies and housing complexes.

He identified the security guards as Binariman, Nur Dwiantoro, Maxi Milianus, Aceng, Awang Sukiatno, Abdul Gani, Dodi Fitria, Agus Salim, and Sofyan. He said office boys Heru and Enteng Mochtar, alias Enteng, as well as driver Ngatimin were also suspected of involvement in the killing.

Maulana was found last Friday by villagers on Jl. Kavling Polri in the Kandan area, Jagakarsa district. His head was covered in a plastic bag, his body was covered in red welts and his hands were bound.

Maulana was still breathing and the locals rushed him to the Fatmawati Hospital. Upon reaching the hospital, he entered a coma and died on Dec. 12.

Officer Rycko said the gang of suspected killers had confessed that they carried out the violent act because Maulan had once robbed one of them of his money and shoes.

"The suspected killers are actually good guys. They just went too far. But we'll charge all of them for causing violent injuries, which later caused the victim's death," Rycko said.

"The suspects had beaten and stabbed the victim in anger, since the victim had robbed one of the suspects. They did not beat the victim to death, but did leave him in the dumpster to die."

Rycko said he and his men were initially totally in the dark when they were informed about the villagers' discovery in the Jagakarsa dumpster.

"We finally went to his parents. They told us that their boy was a high school dropout, and had never dared to go back to school.

"The boy had then become a parking attendant at a BCA branch. I will not tell you which branch. We searched and waited in the area for days and found out that the one who claimed to be a parking attendant was known to his acquaintances as a thief, and the boy was called Kinung."

In the beginning, Rycko said, nobody in the area would admit to being a friend of Kinung's. He said eventually a man came up to him and told him that Kinung's best friend, Andi, had just been arrested for pickpocketing in the Pancoran subprecinct in South Jakarta.

"I then got hold of Andi. He told me that he and Kinung had last week robbed a person in a minivan. A few hours later, a Kijang van with men in crew cuts and walkie-talkies arrived in the Pasar Minggu area, and were about to kidnap both him and Kinung, but he escaped. That was the last Andi saw of Kinung."

Rycko said an eyewitness to the incident later told the police that he saw Kinung being dragged into the office of PT Sentinil Garda Semesta.

"I went there myself, grabbed hold of Enteng, an office boy, and asked him about the incident," the officer said.

"Enteng confessed everything, starting from the time Kinung robbed Dwiantoro, to the fact that Toro got mad enough and gathered his security guard friends to hunt for this thief," he said.

Separately, Dwiantoro told The Jakarta Post that he had only beaten Maulana.

"Then I sat back and witnessed my friends beat the man up. I didn't say anything to Dodi Fitria when I saw him chopping the thief's hair off and covering the thief's head with a plastic bag."

Dwiantoro said the dead youth had once told him to take off his shoes, take his wallet out, and had taken everything from him.

"I could not leave him alone. When I saw that my friends had beaten him to a pulp, I thought this thief would die," Toro said.

"So I took the body in the van and went to my superior -- I can't give you his name -- and told him about the matter.

I asked him whether we should take the thief to the police. My superior told me that it would just cause trouble, and told me to dump him somewhere."

"All the while, the thief murmured to me that he was sorry, and that he would never rob again. But, all of us were just angry. So, we just left him in the dumpster." (ylt)