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Fri, Oct 03, 2008
The New Straits Times
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Bizarre beating in 'cleansing ritual'
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KUALA LUMPUR - A bizarre "treatment" to kick the smoking habit led to a middle-aged couple being beaten to death on Wednesday.
A 15-year-old girl who also took part in the ritual is fighting for her life in hospital.
The couple's son and three other men have been detained by police, who were left shaking their heads in disbelief at what went on.
Police learned that the family beat each other up with helmets and broomsticks in what was said to be a "cleansing ritual" at a Sri Sarawak flat in Jalan Imbi.
The case took another peculiar turn when it was learnt that the man behind the ritual was a 23-year-old with a history of mental illness.
He was said to be a former City Hall employee sacked recently for indiscipline.
The dead couple were Mohd Ibrahim Kader Mydin, 47, and his wife Rosina S.M. Mydin Pillay, 41, of Pandan Indah. The couple's three children, between the ages of 14 and 21, were also present during the incident.
Initial investigations revealed that Mohd Ibrahim, a mobile phone dealer, had tried to stop smoking for several months. Yesterday, during a Hari Raya visit to a relative, the matter was brought up. Rosina, a housewife, also complained of suffering from a liver ailment.
That was when one of the relatives at the family gathering proposed the ritual.
Eleven members of the family were then at the flat -- and they started assaulting each other with broomsticks and helmets.
It was to be a "cleansing ritual" but it all went wrong.
After an hour of "treatment", Mohd Ibrahim, Rosina, and a niece, who was unnamed, were beaten unconscious.
City CID chief Senior Assistant Commissioner II Ku Chin Wah who was at the scene on Wednesday night, said the ambulance was only called about 9pm, some six hours after the "ritual" had begun.
Ku said police initially detained all eight remaining family members for investigations but released four of them yesterday.
Ku said: "The relative's eldest son, who is the mastermind, convinced the couple that he could 'cure' their illness by beating them."
After the session ended, the nine who were injured including the 15-year-old girl came to, but not the couple, who suffered head injuries.
When the ambulance arrived, it was discovered that the couple had died while the teenager was critically woun-ded.
She is now in intensive care at Kuala Lumpur hospital.
A neighbour, identified only as Noor, 36, said she had seen some of family washing the corridor in front of their unit at about 5pm on Wednesday.
"I was initially puzzled as the water was reddish in colour, but thought nothing of it until the ambulance came later," she said.
"Earlier, I heard some chants, as though they were praying and heard some loud noises from the flat."
Noor said the dead couple had lived in the flat for a long time with the current occupants until they moved out to Pandan Indah some 10 years ago.
She said she knew the family well and was puzzled when on Hari Raya day she noticed that the menfolk of the family had shaved their heads.
"Until the day before, none of them were bald, " she said.
The family living there now comprised a couple aged 50 and 44, three sons between the ages of 19 and 23, and the 15-year-old girl currently in critical condition.
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