One Year After Garut Pendopo Tragedy, Students Urge West Java Police to Conclude Case
One year has passed since the deadly tragedy at the People’s Party (Pesta Rakyat) held at the Garut Regency Pendopo, which claimed three lives, yet the legal process over the case is widely seen as stalled.
The tragedy occurred during the wedding celebration of Maula Akbar Mulyadi Putra, son of West Java Governor Dedi Mulyadi, and Deputy Regent of Garut Putri Karlina, at the Garut Regency Pendopo on 18 July 2025.
The Alliance of West Java Students and Youth Demanding Justice (AMPJM) held a peaceful protest in front of the West Java Regional Police (Polda Jabar) headquarters on Wednesday (29 July).
The protesters urged the police to promptly provide legal certainty over the handling of the case, which is still considered to have shown no significant progress.
Action coordinator MF Akbar said the protest was held as a form of solidarity with the victims and to remind the authorities that the case must not be left unfinished. The victims’ families are still awaiting legal certainty over the tragedy.
“We want to question how far the handling of the Garut People’s Party tragedy case, which killed three people, has progressed. To this day, the public, especially the victims’ families, are still waiting for legal certainty,” he said.
Before staging the protest, AMPJM said it had carried out a week-long observation in Garut, meeting the families of those killed and those injured. From those meetings, the victims expressed hope that the legal process would continue until completion.
ELEVEN WITNESSES QUESTIONED
In its statement of position, AMPJM assessed that the handling of the case has been slow, even though it has been transferred from the Garut Resort Police to the West Java Regional Police. The alliance noted that nearly a year on, there has been no information on any upgrading of the case’s status, even though investigators have previously questioned at least eleven witnesses from various parties.
AMPJM also believes the tragedy, which killed three people — one of them a police officer — and injured dozens of others, is suspected to have resulted from negligence on the part of the organisers.
Based on their observations, a number of injured victims are still suffering health problems, including psychological trauma following the incident.
They are therefore demanding that investigators thoroughly examine all parties suspected of bearing responsibility, without exception.
According to AMPJM, the provision of compensation to the victims’ families is a form of humanitarian responsibility, but it does not erase the ongoing legal process.
“We support the investigators if they are still delving into this case. However, the public has the right to know how far its handling has progressed. That is why we are asking Polda Jabar to promptly provide an official explanation to the public,” Akbar asserted.
FIVE DEMANDS
In its action, AMPJM put forward five demands: that Polda Jabar continue the legal handling of the deadly Pendopo Garut tragedy; that the case be upgraded to the investigation stage and suspects named if criminal elements have been met; that the alleged slowness in handling the case be probed; that legal certainty be given to the victims; and that the investigation be completed without exception.
Akbar stressed that the alliance would stage further protests with larger numbers if there is still no meaningful progress in the handling of the case.
The protest proceeded under police escort. Participants took turns delivering speeches and unfurled posters bearing their demands that the handling of the case be promptly concluded.