KAMPAR: The police here have denied abusing 10-year-old N. Logeswaran who was picked up on suspicion of stealing a teacher's purse.

Responding to news reports about such allegations, Kampar OCPD Supt Nordin Manan said his officers did not abuse or threaten the pupil after picking him up from his school here on Aug 6 at 12.45pm.

"The clinical findings from Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun did not show any signs of physical abuse," he told a press conference here yesterday.

Supt Nordin said the alleged injuries looked more like rashes than wounds.

He also said that the boy was not handcuffed and was not detained in a lock-up.

Logeswaran claimed he was choked, slapped and scalded by police officers into confessing to the theft, allegedly committed on Aug 5.

Supt Nordin said the headmaster granted permission for the boy to be picked up for questioning; and the headmaster informed Logeswaran's parents.

"How can they claim that the parents were not informed when they saw us pick him up at the school?" said Supt Nordin.

A spokesman at for the school said Logeswaran's parents were informed about the matter. "The mother was even at the school when police picked him up."

Lawyer G. Balasundram, speaking for Logeswaran's parents, maintained that the school did not inform them about the arrest.

Parti Sosialis Malaysia central committee member Dr D. Jeyakumar also insisted that the school had not informed the parents.

"The mother only knew that her child had been picked up when she went to the school to fetch him home," said the Sungai Siput MP.

Dr Jeyakumar, a medical doctor by profession, claimed the abrasions on the child were consistent with physical abuse.