Lovelorn soldier, student arrested for Depok blast
Lovelorn soldier, student arrested for Depok blast
JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Police announced late Sunday that they
had arrested a lovelorn army soldier and student on Saturday in
connection with the recent bomb blast in Depok, on the outskirts
of Jakarta.
Speaking at a hastily called news conference here, Jakarta
Police Detective chief Sr. Comr. Adang Rochyana identified the
suspects as First Sgt. Ucok Erianto, 27, and Irwan bin Erman, 27.
He said the motive behind the blast was pure criminal and
driven by a personal dispute between the suspect and the family
living in the house where the bomb exploded.
Preliminary questioning revealed that Ucok was angered by the
family of his girlfriend as his marriage proposal was turned down
by the family.
Ucok, a soldier at Trikora Military Command in Irian Jaya, was
assigned to Ambon, Maluku, where he met Hesti, a nurse in Ambon.
They were lovers for some time until they decided to get
married. Hesti's family, however, refused to bless the couple.
Police said in a fit of anger, Ucok came to Jakarta and
planted the explosive in front of the house of Hesti's brother
Achmad on Jl. Mangga Raya in Depok.
"So it really has nothing to do with other previous blasts as
the motive behind this blast was the rejection of love," Adang
told the media briefing.
Adang said Ucok admitted that he took the explosives,
containing powerful trinitrotoluene (TNT), from his military unit
and assembled the bomb while he was in Ambon.
The blast in Depok occurred only one hour after a powerful
explosion shattered a dormitory of Acehnese students in the
Guntur area in South Jakarta. That blast claimed three lives.
There were no fatalities in the Depok blast.
Adang said the police received a tip on Ucok from several
pedicab drivers who said two strangers were asking about the
location of Achmad's house.
The police then asked Hesti to arrange a meeting with Ucok at
the Depok railway station. Ucok agreed but was then arrested on
arrival before his meeting with Hesti.
"Ucok then led us to Irwan who we arrested in Ismail Marzuki
Park in Central Jakarta only a few hours after Ucok's arrest,"
Adang said.
He said, however, that the police were still investigating the
connection between Ucok and Irwan, a student at the Indonesian
Art Institute in Yogyakarta, and also the latter's role in the
blast. (ylt)