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IPOH – Police have debunked allegations of an attempted kidnapping of a primary school girl in Taman Pinji Mewah here, which has recently gone viral on social media.
Perak police chief Datuk Mohd Yusri Hassan Basri said an investigation found that the victim admitted to making up the story before lodging a police report.
“We have called up the victim and five witnesses involved in the report, including the student’s classmates, security guard, and school van driver and found that the report saying that the child was almost abducted is not true.
“Maybe the victim was influenced after watching kidnapping videos from abroad through social media sites, in addition to wanting to find out what police will do in such an incident,” he said at a media conference here today.
The case went viral on Facebook after the father of the student posted about the attempted kidnapping, which supposedly happened while the victim was waiting outside their school on September 23. It was claimed then that the victim managed to escape.
The victim also claimed that the kidnapper managed to escape by getting into a white van parked about 20m from where the incident occurred.
“We also want to state that the allegation and speculation about the white van in this case, as has gone viral, is not true.
“Police have confirmed that the sighting of the white van was a coincidence as it was a bus ferrying workers, so when this case was still a hot news item, it was misinterpreted as an attempted kidnapping,” he added.
As such, he advised the public to stop spreading news related to the incident so as not to cause fear or anxiety, adding that disseminating such news is an actionable offence. – Bernama, September 27, 2022