Chandra (second left) showing the machete that is believed to be used in the murder.
KOTA KINABALU: Police here have detained a foreign man who allegedly murdered his 40-year-old father-in-law with a machete at a squatter house at Mile 10, Tuaran Bypass here on August 12.
Deputy city police chief Superintendent M. Chandra said following a tip-off and continuous investigation, police arrested the 21-year-old suspect, identified as Adzmi Basari, at a restaurant in Beaufort on Thursday at around 2.30pm
“Police were able to positively identify the suspect, who was inside the restaurant with his 14-year-old wife and two-week-old child.
“Upon being aware of the presence of the police, the suspect tried to flee the scene by grabbing his wife and bags but was apprehended by police,” he told at a press conference at the city police headquarters in Karamunsing here yesterday.
Chandra said the suspect had been taken back to the state capital for interrogation and investigation into the murder.
“The suspect took the police to the house where the murder took place and showed us the location where he initially disposed of the murder weapon,” he said, adding that police recovered a 20-inch machete some 30 metres away from the house.
The suspect is currently being detained under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
Chandra said the wife and child would be released after a statement had been taken from them.
Meanwhile, Chandra said from their investigation, it is believed that the motive of the murder was revenge, after the suspect found out that the victim had sexually harassed the suspect’s wife, who is also the victim’s stepdaughter.
The body of Jani Aminul, also a foreigner, was found by the victim’s wife lying in a pool of blood with slash wounds on the back of his neck on a mattress around 12.30pm on August 12. At the time of the incident, the victim was in the house with his 14-year-old stepdaughter, her 20-year-old husband and the couple’s two-week-old child.
The suspect and his family then had fled the scene on a motorcycle, which was found abandoned in Telipok around 2.50pm the same day.