BCA guards investigated over businessman torture

JAKARTA (JP): City Police detectives chief Sr. Supt. Harry Montolalu said his men suspected the involvement of several people, including Bank Central Asia security guards, in the torture and unlawful detention of a businessman at the bank's headquarters earlier this week.

"Some of the suspects are security guards of BCA," Harry told reporters at his office on Friday.

But the officer said he was unable to give more details about the case since the investigation has not yet been fully completed.

Harry, however, explained that his detectives were currently focusing their investigation on the allegations of torture, instead of the alleged credit card fraud which reportedly caused the incident.

"We're probing the case based on the report filed with us by Deddy, but we'll also investigate the credit card fraud allegedly committed by him," Harry said, referring to the victim, businessman Deddy Sujadi.

Harry vowed that he would proceed with the investigation of the torture allegations and bring the case to the court even if some of the suspects were police or military personnel hired by the bank.

"If there is adequate evidence pointing to their roles in an illegal security operation, such officers will be processed in accordance with military or police regulations," he said.

Deddy filed the report with the Jakarta Police on Wednesday over the mistreatment he says he suffered at the hands of BCA employees.

He said the employees tortured him and kept him locked up from Monday to Tuesday afternoon after accusing him of attempting to use a fake credit card.

The 29-year-old businessman said about six or seven bank employees tortured him and locked him up on the fourth floor of Wisma BCA on Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta.

Deddy said he suffered bruising and swelling around his right eye, across his stomach and chest and on both of his legs.

The victim, who owns Krekot Laundry in Mangga Besar, West Jakarta, said the incident began at about 2 p.m. on Monday when he received a phone call from an acquaintance, whom he identified as Rudy Wijaya.

Deddy said he first met Rudy last year when they arranged togel (a local lottery scheme) numbers together, but had lost contact with him six months ago.

"Rudy said he wanted to see me and was willing to help me arrange some Singapore togel numbers," he told reporters.

He then met with Rudy at the ITC Mangga Dua market in West Jakarta.

"Rudy, a wristwatch dealer, then asked me to accompany him to buy some watches... He said he wanted to buy 10 Rolex watches at the Jaya Makmur watch store, located on the ground floor of the market," he said.

Rudy then became involved in a deal with the storekeeper, Mrs. Dedeh, Deddy said. "Rudy pulled out a Standard Chartered Visa Master credit card and gave it to her."

He said Rudy seemed nervous as the credit card was repeatedly rejected by the credit card approval machine.

"Rudy became even more nervous when the storekeeper picked up the phone. He then asked the storekeeper's permission to go to the toilet," he said, adding that one of the store assistants asked him to remain in the store after Rudy left.

Deddy said Rudy failed to return and two BCA employees eventually showed up at the store and drove him to Wisma BCA.

The two employees were later identified as Widi and Hadi, who work in the bank's credit card section.

Deddy said the two men locked him up in the credit card section on the fourth floor of the building and kept him there from 5 p.m. on Monday to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

"I was interrogated by the bank's employees. Six or seven employees tortured me, hitting and kicking me," he said, adding that he was not given any food during his detention.

He alleged the employees demanded that he return the bank's money, which they said had been obtained using the fake credit card.

"They asked me to pay Rp 30 million and forced me to surrender the ownership documents for my Astrea Supra motorcycle," said Deddy, who was accompanied by his mother at police headquarters.

Meanwhile, Widi of BCA said the bank suspected Deddy used the counterfeit credit card to make numerous purchases. "Some Rp 100 million was spent using the fake card," Widi said.

He denied the employees had tortured Deddy. "That was self- defense, since he (Deddy) tried to hit me first."

Deddy said he was brought to City Military Headquarters in Guntur, South Jakarta, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday before being released by military police officers.

Rizal Zakaria, a staffer with BCA's public relations department, said the bank was investigating the matter. (asa)