Penang police confirm that a recent armed fight in Air Itam involving 13 suspects stemmed from a gang debt dispute.
GEORGE TOWN: Police have confirmed that an armed fight that caused two individuals to suffer severe injurie in front of a National Type Chinese Primary School in Ayer Itam here on Saturday involved Geng 04 members.
Penang police chief Datuk Dennis Lim Kwang Keng said all 13 men arrested to facilitate investigations into the case are believed to be members of the same gang but in different areas and the fight was due to a misunderstanding over debts.
“Investigations found that the debt did not involve unlicensed money lending or loansharking but they were trying to help a certain party to retreive the debt from members of their gang.
‘They started out discussing the issue properly but failed to reach an agreement before a dispute and the fight occurred till a suspect tried to ram several individuals there with a vehicle” he told reporters at the Penang contingent police headquarters here today.
He said the two severely injured men, in their 30s, were not gang members but were attacked when they were misidentified as suspects involved in the fight, adding the victims were on their way back from a religious festival when they were attacked by the group.
“They are victims who coincidentally were wearing clothes with similar colours and were assumed to be members involved in the fight, both of them suffered severe injuries but are now in stable condition and being treated in hospital,” he said, adding that the case is being investigated under Section 326 and 148 of the Penal Code.
