Four arrested for murder in Bongkaran

Four arrested for murder in Bongkaran

JAKARTA (JP): Police have arrested four of the five men
suspected of brutally killing a prostitute's client in the low-
class Bongkaran red-light district in Central Jakarta.

"The suspects were arrested in different places over the
weekend while the remaining one is believed to have left the city
for his hometown in South Sulawesi," First Sergeant Soetrisno,
head of the crime investigation unit of the Tanah Abang police
subprecinct, told reporters yesterday.

The arrested suspects are identified as Lukas Lalang Rosari
De'ornai, 22, Hendrikus Tanu, 28, Komaruddin Baharuddin, 25, and
Irvan Amir, alias Ziko, 23.

It is believed that all five men brutally killed Wantoni with
badiks (traditional daggers from South Sulawesi), leaving the 25-
year-old man with a total of 53 severe stab wounds.

"Almost every part of his body, including his face, was full
of holes," said Soetrisno.

According to police, all of the suspects are jobless and known
as long-time gang hoodlums in the slum prostitution area of
Bongkaran, located near the Tanah Abang terminal.

After a series of questioning sessions, police concluded
yesterday that Wantoni was jumped by the gang on the evening of
Feb. 2 when he refused to pay the full Rp 7,000 (US$3.17) to a
local prostitute named Ani, who is also the girlfriend of the one
suspect still at large.

She is believed to be hiding with the fugitive, whose identity
is being withheld.

Soetrisno said Wantoni came to the site together with his
friend, Radius Alam, to play traditional gambling games.

"They couldn't find any games that night and so they went to
sit down on the railway tracks, which is when Ani and another
prostitute came by and offered their services," he said.

Having agreed to the tariff, the two prostitutes then took the
two men to two cardboard box rooms.

Radius came out of the dimly-lit "room" a few minutes after
paying Rp 5,000 to his prostitute, who, according to Soetrisno,
has not been identified. Just as Radius left the room, however,
two men accosted him with their badik and demanded his money.

Thief

He handed over all of his money, which totaled Rp 48,000, and
then, according to the sergeant, Radius heard screams of "thief,
thief" coming from Wantoni's box.

Wantoni then tried to leave the room, apparently having paid
Ani only Rp 4,000 of the Rp 7,000 promised.

Ani's boyfriend then busted into the room and pointed a badik
at Wantoni, who managed to snatch away the dagger and stab the
assailing boyfriend, said Soetrisno.

Surprised with the sudden attack, the other gang members
rushed into the room and attacked Wantoni, he said.

Wantoni escaped the cardboard room and hid under a parked
truck.

Several minutes later he was found by the others, who
proceeded to stab Wantoni over 50 times with their badik.

"The suspects took all of the victim's ID cards and left his
dead, bleeding body under the truck, hoping that the truck would
crush him later," Soetrisno said.

The police, however, were informed of the incident soon enough
to retrieve Wantoni's body out from beneath the truck.

Radius only found out that his friend had been killed after
reading a local newspaper. He later identified Wantoni's
perforated body at the morgue of Cipto Mangunkusumo general
hospital. (bsr)