SHAH ALAM, 30 April 2020:
Police arrested 27 individuals at an apartment unit in Section 7 here, for breaching the Movement Control Order (MCO) by organising a birthday celebration, early yesterday morning.
Shah Alam district police chief ACP Baharudin Mat Taib said the 25 men and two women, all local residents aged between 19 and 37, were arrested at about 3.30am following a tip-off.
He said investigations revealed the apartment unit was booked online by one of the individuals for the purpose of holding a birthday party for one of the members.
“Following a search, police seized three bottles of liquor, another three had already been consumed, a portable speaker and a microphone.
“On further investigation we also found a black bag containing compressed dried leaves, wrapped in tin-foil, suspected to be cannabis weighing about 120g,” he said in a statement.
Baharudin said urine tests conducted on all detainees, found nine men including the birthday boy, aged 20, positive for marijuana.
He added that one of the men is wanted by the police to facilitate investigation into a gang robbery case in Teluk Intan, Perak.
He said all the individuals are on a four-day remand and the case is being investigated under Section 22 (b) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, Section 269 of the Penal Code and Section 39A (2) of the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.
In KUALA LUMPUR, four men, including two foreign nationals, who went to celebrate a friend’s birthday at a homestay were fined RM700 each, in default a month’s jail, by the Ampang magistrate’s court for defying the MCO.
Yeop Lip Gang Bradley, 26, Derick Loh Wei Chun, 27, and Taiwanese Tsai Mu Teng, 33 and Wang Wei Hung, 30, pleaded guilty to the charge before magistrate Normaizan Rahim.
According to the facts of the case, residents lodged a report following the presence of unknown persons in their housing area at Taman Tiara Kemensah Rimba, Ampang in Hulu Langat here at 5pm on April 17.
When arrested by the police, the four men said there were in the area to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was later found they had rented a homestay there.
In the same court, a security guard was fined RM1,500, in default two months jail, for insulting a policeman and defying the MCO.
K, Vijayan was charged with committing both the offences in front of the Taman Melawati police station, Ampang at 10.50am on April 23.
Meanwhile, 45 people were charged in three magistrate’s court in KL with defying MCO, with 40 of them fined between RM700 and RM1,000, in default a month’s jail), after they pleaded guilty to the charge.
Three others were sentenced to three days to a month’s jail, while the other two pleaded not guilty and the court set June 11 and 22 for mention.
They were charged with committing the offence at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Setapak, Keramat, Wangsa Maju dan Brickfields, between April 15 and 28.
A public health assistant was also charged in the magistrate’s court with obstructing and punching a policeman during an inspection at a roadblock as well as violating the MCO last Friday.
Mohamad Alif Syazwan Roslan, 27, pleaded not guilty to all three charges that were read to him separately before magistrate M. Saravanan.
For the first and second offences, Mohamad Alif Syazwan was accused of obstructing Corporal P. Thiruselvam from carrying out his duty at a roadblock by attacking the policeman and he was also accused of using criminal force by punching the public servant.
He was charged under Section 186 and Section 353 of the Penal Code which provides for a maximum two years in jail or a fine or both upon conviction.
The accused was also charged with violating MCO by moving from Taman Sri Watan to Batu 4 Jalan Ampang with no reasonable cause as provided for under Rule 3(1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act (Measures within the Infected Local Areas) Regulations 2020.
The charge was framed under Rule 11(1) of the same regulations, which provides for a fine up to RM1,000 or jail not more than six months or both upon conviction. All offences were allegedly committed at Batu 4 Jalan Ampang at 6.15am on April 24.
Earlier, public deputy prosecutor Hanis Anisha Jamilludin proposed bail of RM9,000 with one surety for all charges, however, lawyer P. Muniswer who represented Mohamad Alif Syazwan asked for a lower bail on the grounds that the accused works as a public health assistant and also involves in taking and collecting blood samples for Covid-19 cases. He also said the accused has two school-going children.
The court set bail of RM4,500 in one surety and fixed June 11 for mention.
In KUALA KUBU BHARU, a total of 154 people, including 78 women, were fined RM600 each, in default 15 days’ jail, by the magistrate’s court for defying the MCO.
All of them, aged between 19 and 61, pleaded guilty to the charge which was read out before judge Nurul Mardhiah Mohammed Redza.
They were jointly charged by gathering in a settlement area in Ulu Rening, Batang Kali, Hulu Selangor, which is an infected area, at 5pm on Tuesday.
In mitigation, their lawyer, Amy Zaimi said his clients were had been in the area even before MCO was enforced to clear the land for agriculture purposes and that they apologised for their mistake.
In the same court, five other people, aged between 23 and 35, were fined between RM800 dan RM1,000, in default a month’s jail, for a similar offence. They were caught moving from one place to another infected area in Kuala Kubu Bharu last April 9 and 17.
– Bernama