Police still investigating robbery case

Police still investigating robbery case

JAKARTA (JP): Police are still searching for at least seven
masked men who shot and killed one man and seriously injured
another in a robbery Wednesday at the Kedaung village in Ciputat,
Tangerang.

"Although all their identities are already in our hands, we're
still in the process of locating their hideouts," City Police
spokesman Lt. Col. Latief Rabar told reporters here yesterday.

As of yesterday, investigators from the Ciputat police
precinct were still questioning the other members of the family,
one of their neighbors and a resident of Cipete Utara in South
Jakarta.

Latief said, "no substantial results have been obtained from
the witnesses which could lead us to the prime motives of the
robbery."

During the incident, the robbers, armed with two handguns in
addition to other weapons, including machetes, gunned down
Abdulchair, 30, and seriously injured his brother Ahmad Gozali,
28.

Gozali is still in critical condition at the Fatmawati
hospital in South Jakarta with a bullet in his stomach while
Abdulchair was buried on Wednesday afternoon.

Sources and relatives of the victims said that before moving
to the Kedaung village three months ago, the family sold their
18-square-meter plot in Cipete Utara for Rp 200 million
(US$93,200).

They strongly believe the robbers were after the money,
thinking the family still had it.

A witness from Cipete Utara, whose name was withheld by the
police, may shed some light on the issue.

According to Nurdin, 53, the father of the victims, he has
never had any disputes with other parties except with someone who
claimed to be the owner of the plot he had bought then sold in
Cipete Utara.

"When I bought the land 22 years ago, some of its certificates
were not complete. Perhaps, there's someone who intends to claim
the plot again," the businessman told The Jakarta Post
yesterday.

Commission

Nurdin also explained that he paid Rp 36 million to a broker
as commission for the transaction.

The remaining Rp 164 million has been used by his family for
the construction of four houses, including the one they live in,
and the purchase of three motorcycles and a car for his children.

Nurdin and Mimik, 50, have four sons and three daughters.

The night of the crime, five of their children were staying
with them at the house in Kedaung, the late Abdulchair, Ahmad
Gozali, Neneng, 20, Aceng, 14, and the youngest, Nunung, 13.

Based on the witnesses' stories and on-the-scene
investigation, police said that the gang came to the new two-
story house, which has a high iron fence -- the only one in the
kampong of the Serua Indah subdistrict, Kedaung -- at around 2:30
a.m. with no vehicles, indicating that the robbers might live
nearby.

The robbers turned the electricity off before breaking the
front window of the house.

When the robbers placed a sickle on Mimik's neck, she saw
there were three, whose faces were covered with black scarves
except for their eyes, inside the house.

Neighbors said that they saw about five others wearing black
jackets with no masks patrolling outside and around the scene.
(bsr/anr)