Businessman arrested for allegedly pointing gun at waiter

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Saturday that they had named a businessman, identified as I.A, a suspect for allegedly threatening a restaurant worker by pointing a gun at him.

According to police accounts, the businessman was involved in a scuffle with a worker at the Cork and Screw restaurant in Plaza Indonesia, Central Jakarta, after the former refused to pay his bill that he deemed more expensive than it actually was.

“The businessman then said: ‘If I don’t meet your manager, I’ll demolish this café’,” Rikwanto told reporters, adding that the businessman also pointed a pistol at the worker during the incident.

The police then arrested the businessman after the worker had filed reports with the Jakarta Police. The police would charge him with Articles 335 and 336 of the Criminal Code on discontent acts, which could send him to prison for five years in maximum if he is proven guilty.

However, the police said that the businessman rejected the accusation. I.A. claimed that a thing that he pointed out to the worker was not a gun, but actually a lighter resembling a gun, according to Jakarta Police detective chief Sr. Comr. Toni Hermanto.

“However, we did not find the lighter during our raid in his house,” Toni said, referring to the raid at the businessman’s house at Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on Friday.

“Initially he claimed that the lighter was in his car. We checked his car afterwards, but we could not find [the lighter]. We only found the lighter after [the businessman] said that it was held by his friend, who later gave the lighter to us,” he added.

During the raid at his house, police found two pistols; a Beretta pistol and another pistol specially made to fire rubber bullets.

“He has a permit to own the Berretta pistol that is still valid until December 2012. However, the permit to own the rubber bullet pistol has expired since February 2012,” Rikwanto said, adding that the police also found 150 bullets during the raid.

Rikwanto confirmed that the police could slap additional charges on the businessman for possessing a firearm whose legal permit had expired, as well as possessing sharp bullets exceeding the limit allowed by police.

“The maximum number of sharp bullets allowed for a gun is 50, but we found 150 bullets during the raid," he said.