By Sujin Thomas

NANYANG Technological University (NTU) has responded to comments made to an Indonesian TV station by the family of Mr David Hartanto Widjaja, who stabbed a professor on campus on Monday before falling to his death.

In an interview with the TV station, Media Nusantara Cinta, on Thursday, Mr Widjaja's father, Mr Hartanto Widjaja, said NTU had blocked him from seeing Associate Professor Chan Kap Luk, the don who was attacked, on the day of the incident.

He made a request again two days later, which NTU also refused, said the elder Mr Widjaja.

A seven-minute video clip of the interview had been posted on Indonesian news and entertainment website Okezone.com on Thursday. In it, Mr Hartanto Widjaja said: 'We were told (by NTU staff) that (Prof Chan) was undergoing treatment and in critical condition.'

His elder son William, 24, then said: 'We found it really odd because we read in the newspapers that he was recovering.'

When contacted yesterday, NTU said it had indeed blocked a meeting on the day of the incident, because the timing was not right. Said an NTU spokesman: 'When the family made the request on the evening they arrived, Prof Chan was just out of surgery, and was in no condition to receive any visitors.'

However, the spokesman said NTU did try to facilitate a meeting when asked to do so on Wednesday, but it never materialised as the family was busy with administrative tasks: collecting the dead man's ashes and closing his bank account, among other things - all before flying home the same evening.

Mr David Widjaja, a final-year electrical and electronic engineering undergraduate, had stabbed Prof Chan, 45, in his office during a meeting on Monday morning. Minutes later, he fell four storeys to his death.

In the TV interview, the dead man's brother spoke on why the family sought to meet Prof Chan.

He said 'only one side of the story' has been heard so far.

'It was just both of them in the room, and now my brother is dead. We want this to be properly investigated,' he added.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.