KENINGAU: Police have detained a man for questioning in connection with the abduction of a 22-year-old female Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student. The 20-year-old suspect was caught near Kampung Rompon near here at about 12.15pm yesterday. Kota Kinabalu city police chief ACP Ahmad Sofi Zakaria told reporters here yesterday that they were now hunting the second suspect – a 34-year-old man from Bongawan.
Asked if the student who is from Sibu, Sarawak was sexually assaulted, Sofi said they have to wait for the report from the hospital here where she was being examined.
“This is the first such incident this year,” he added. The UMS student who lived in Kingfisher Park near her university in Kota Kinabalu is believed to have been abducted by the duo and brought to Tambunan at about 9.15pm on Tuesday.
The victim had just been dropped off by friends near a supermarket when two men in a blue Kancil grabbed and bundled her into their vehicle. One of her friends saw what happened and wrote down the Kancil car’s registration number.
And, as the vehicle sped off the police were notified and an all-point bulletin (APB) was immediately issued to police in the surrounding districts. Friends and concerned citizens quickly spread the urgent news of the kidnap incident through SMS and urged the people to be on the lookout for the Kancil car. There was no sign of the car until about 4am when a police mobile patrol vehicle spotted it some 100 kilometres away along the Tambunan-Keningau Road. A 16-mile high speed car chase ensued as the Kancil car headed towards the direction of Kota Kinabalu.
And when they were near Kampung Rompon, the pursuing cops fired several shots at the rear tyres of the abductors’ vehicle causing it to overturn and roll down a roadside slope.
The two suspects were seen fleeing the vehicle while the terrified girl with bruises on her face and body, was seen huddled in the back seat of the car. Police went to her rescue and rushed her to the hospital here, about 60km away from Tambunan. Covered with bloodstains, one of the two suspects had approached the Kampung Rompon villagers for help at about 11am. While several villagers were asking him to wait, one of them quickly ran to the policemen who were still at the scene not far away to alert them about the suspicious-looking injured man.
The policemen then followed the villager back and promptly arrested the suspect, said to be a resident of Kota Belud. The police air wing and dog units are currently involved in the hunt for the second suspect in the hilly and forested terrain. Police are also trying to piece together what transpired during the girl’s 10-hour terror ride from the state capital to Keningau district. Meanwhile Sofi thanked the public for their cooperation which led to the arrest of one of the two suspects. He also said the stolen Kancil car has been seized and impounded at the police station here.
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