Retired teacher A. Velurajan whose family was robbed and physically attacked more than a week ago wants the police to be investigated as they allegedly failed to act promptly, thus allowing the culprits to escape.
Velurajan, 67, a former teacher at Methodist Boys School Sentul, who has lived at New Green Park, Rawang for 30 years, lodged a police report at the Rawang police station yesterday claiming negligence by the cops.
On Aug 5, three masked robbers entered his home and slashed him several times before fleeing with more than RM3,000 and his daughter’s car. He received 28 stitches on his head.
His family was left more bitter after alleged tardiness and inaction by the police.
After the robbery, Velurajan’s daughter Thivyah had posted on Facebook that a patrol car was only dispatched an hour after the first call was made at 2.37am despite the Rawang police station being only eight minutes away from their home.
She also claimed, among others, that closed circuit television (CCTV) footage showed the patrol car making a U-turn near their home and was parked at the end of the road for some 17 minutes until the robbers escaped.
Besides Thivyah, Velurajan’s eldest daughter Venilaa, her eight-month-old baby boy, his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law were at home when the robbers struck.
Here is Velurajan’s account of the incident:
“It was supposed to be another peaceful night. Suddenly, Venilaa woke me up, saying she heard something. I quickly ran to the back of the house and saw three masked men trying to break in. They were fully covered, with long pants and boots. They had a machete and sticks.
I was only armed with a stick. I warned them not to enter but they went ahead. Being the only man in the house, I had to protect the others.
Everything happened so fast. The robbers and I lunged at each other. I managed to hit them but the one with the machete hit me in the head.
My daughters pleaded to them to stop. It was about an hour-long ordeal but it seemed forever.
I’m blessed to have good neighbours, most of them retirees who were equally shocked over the incident. They rallied behind us following the incident.
We have two security guards with some 200 houses here. Only 45 homes are paying for the security services and clearly the guards failed us. We also have a Rukun Tetangga (neighbourhood watch) of which I am a member. The RT has decided to discontinue the services of the guards and will introduce new security measures.
We managed to get CCTV footage showing the police car parked at the end of the road for some 17 minutes.
We are law-abiding citizens. Here we have a small group causing havoc and the people who should protect us did not protect us.
If the police station was a distance away, I would understand but it’s just an eight-minute drive from my house.
The police officers who took my report yesterday were nice and I was referred to the Gombak police district headquarters. I told them I don’t want the same thing to happen to others.
We cannot take things for granted and we cannot be restrained and not question the police.”