Police chief in Riau commits suicide

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.