Police chief in Riau commits suicide

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru, Riau

Riau police were mourning the death of a senior officer who ended his own life on Tuesday night at his home, apparently after family problems got the better of him.

Spokesman for Riau Police Adj. Sr. Comr. S. Pandiangan said on Thursday that detective chief of Kampar regency First Insp. Jhontua D. Hutagalung, 32, died after hanging himself.

At the time, his wife Sri Mulyani had left the house to go shopping in Bangkinang town and was called by her husband, who told her to return home immediately because he was going to commit suicide.

When arriving back home in the police housing complex in Bangkinang, Sri found her husband hanging by a belt in his room.

Sri reported the case to Kampar Police deputy chief Comr. Samudi who noticed that Jhontua was still alive. However, minutes later he died on the way to Bangkinang General Hospital.

Pandiangan told The Jakarta Post that his office was investigating exactly what prompted the local police detective chief to take his own life.

The Riau police had earlier made an attempt to cover up the suicide and initially announced that Jhontua died from "a certain disease."

Police sources said the victim and his wife, who have a three- year-old son, did not have a happy marriage.

A long-running quarrel with his family regarding Jhontua's Christian conversion, also apparently was causing him a great deal of stress.

Jhontua had reportedly tried to commit a suicide at least three times when he served as the Tanjungpinang police chief on Riau Islands.

Since then, he was prohibited by his superiors from carrying a gun for the last three months. He was appointed as the Kampar police detectives chief in October.

Riau Police chief Brig. Gen. Dedi S. Komaruddin said he and other officers here mourned the death of Jhontua as his corpse was flown home on Wednesday to Medan, North Sumatra, for burial.