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JOHOR BAHRU, July 28 \u2014 After nearly three years of investigation and recent developments, police have reclassified the death of a baby boy here as a murder case.<\/p>\n
The probe also identified the 18-month-old victim\u2019s father as the main suspect.<\/p>\n
Johor police chief Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said a report on the case was received from a doctor attached to the Sultan Ismail Hospital\u2019s (HSI) emergency department here on September 13, 2023.<\/p>\n
He said the victim, who was unconscious, was brought to the hospital by his 40-year-old father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA physical examination found bruises on the victim\u2019s waist, a bulging stomach and swelling in his anus. The victim was pronounced dead at 10.40am on the same day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe case was initially investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001 on suspicion of neglect that led to death,\u201d he told reporters at the Johor police contingent headquarters here today.<\/p>\n
Ab Rahaman said throughout the probe, investigators called a total of 13 individuals, including immediate family members and the victim\u2019s caregiver, to assist in investigation.<\/p>\n
He said this was in addition to taking blood samples for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, the Chemistry Department\u2019s analysis failed to identify the suspect because traces of liquid, believed to be semen, found in the victim\u2019s anus were insufficient for analysis and comparison,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ab Rahaman said police got their latest lead after investigations led to the arrest of the victim\u2019s father and his 35-year-old uncle on July 18 and 22.<\/p>\n
He said the victim\u2019s father, who works as a labourer in Singapore, had no criminal records, while the victim\u2019s uncle had 13 prior criminal and drug records and had also tested positive for marijuana abuse.<\/p>\n
Based on the latest findings, Ab Rahaman said investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the victim may have been sexually assaulted prior to his death.<\/p>\n
He said that checks of the father\u2019s mobile phone also found obscene pictures and videos.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the latest developments, the case was reclassified under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder and Section 292 of the Penal Code for possession of obscene material.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspect is expected to be charged at the Magistrates\u2019 Court here tomorrow for both charges,\u201d he said, adding that the victim\u2019s uncle, who was acquitted, will be a prosecution witness.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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JOHOR BAHRU, July 28 \u2014 After nearly three years of investigation and recent developments, police have reclassified the death of a baby boy here as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}