The heinous crime was uncovered after her grandaunt said she had found the victim – who was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus disease which sees an excess of brain fluid from birth – unconscious in the living room of the house on Dec 30 last year.
Gombak district police chief Arifai Tarawe said that the girl was confirmed dead by the Orang Asli Hospital Gombak medical team before her body was sent to Kuala Lumpur Hospital for post-mortem.
He said that the post-mortem found that the cause of death was due to rupture of the intestines, and there were old and new scars on the victim’s body, believed to be due to abuse.
“The investigation led the police to believe that the 55-year-old Indonesian woman, who is also the victim’s grandaunt, was the main suspect and detained her on Jan 1 along with the girl’s father, who works as a lorry driver, and four other individuals to assist in the investigation,” he told reporters at a press conference at the Rawang police station, here today.
According to Arifai, initial investigation found that the girl, the youngest of three siblings, lived with her sister and father at their grandaunt’s house after his parents divorced in 2017.
The investigation also found that the victim was abused with a cane in addition to blunt force trauma to the stomach that led to severe damage of her intestines.
Arifai said that the victim’s sister is currently at Selayang Hospital for examination to check whether she is also a victim of abuse.
“All of them were remanded for six days until tomorrow and the case is being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, three men, aged 25 to 38 with prior criminal records, were arrested on suspicion of being involved in vehicle theft cases in raids around Rawang and Selayang, here, conducted from Saturday until yesterday.
Arifai said following the arrest of the first man at 2am on Saturday in Rawang town, police raided an illegal workshop in the parking area of an apartment in Rawang Perdana and arrested another man who was dismantling engine and car components.
“Inspections at the workshop found three vehicles reported missing in Rawang, Bukit Sentosa and Jinjang, as well as two vehicles with chassis number being altered, suspected to be stolen vehicles,” he said, adding that the third man was arrested in the apartment parking area in Rawang Perdana at about 2am yesterday.
He said that police were currently tracking down Muhammad Fazli Subri @ Lie, 26, whose last known address was in Kampung Manik Urai Lama, Kuala Krai, Kelantan.
“As a result of the arrest, the police managed to solve six vehicle theft cases in the Rawang, Gombak and Hulu Selangor areas,” he said.