Businessman found dead in hospital grounds

Businessman found dead in hospital grounds

JAKARTA (JP): The corpse of Tjandra Tjandra, a 58-year-old
businessman, was found with three stabs to the neck and stomach
in the compound of the Husada hospital in Central Jakarta
yesterday morning.

Two knives were still stuck in him while another was found not
far off. Tjandra lived in nearby Tangki subdistrict, Taman Sari,
West Jakarta.

The staff of the hospital on Jl. Mangga Besar Raya told The
Jakarta Post that the corpse, wearing only trousers, was found by
visitors and on-duty nurses at around 6:30 a.m.

The body was found on the grass under a tree beside the
surgery room, more than 200 meters away from the front door of
the main building.

There were no signs of any struggle, but police found
bloodstains on a wall, and on the ground.

From his pocket, police found a signed suicide note, saying he
wanted to kill himself after having failed to handle the labor
dispute at his factory, PT BTMHH, in Bekasi, 35 kilometers east
of here.

Treatened

The signature resembles the one found on his identity card.

Tjandra's firm in Bekasi as mentioned in the letter could not
be reached for confirmation.

In his note, apparently written in poor Bahasa Indonesia,
Tjandra said that he was always being threatened by workers at
the factory. He said that the workers even disrespected the
government officials trying to help settle the dispute in the
company.

The letter did not give details on the nature of the dispute.

If Tjandra was in fact killed, there must have been at least
one perpetrator. They would have been spotted by the hospital's
staff or guards, said a police detective.

"We have collected information from those on duty last night
and none of them had heard any scream," Tanita Meliani, an
official of the hospital, told the Post.

Police, however, refused to come to such a conclusion so
quickly.

"We're still investigating the case, trying to collect more
evidence whether he had committed suicide or been murdered,"
Central Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Murawi Effendy told
reporters.

A police dog sniffed out a route from the scene of the crime
to the front door and the back of the hospital.

According to Meliani, relatives of the victim told the
hospital staff that Tjandra had left his house at around 4 a.m.
yesterday.

However, his relatives refused to comment when met by
reporters at the coroner unit of the Cipto Mangunkusumo general
hospital. (bsr)