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)