Two people were left injured when a fight broke out at the Kota Raya shopping centre in the city.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 ― Police have arrested a man over his suspected involvement in yesterday’s fight at the Kota Raya shopping centre in the city.
According to The Star Online, Dang Wangi deputy police chief Supt Habibi Majinji said the man, a 38-year-old parking attendant, was arrested at the mall yesterday, shortly after the 5pm fight was contained.
“The suspect was part of the group involved in the assault on the shop workers.
“He works as a parking attendant in a shopping complex,” Habibi was quoted as saying.
He added that the man will be remanded today and that the incident is being investigated under Section 148 of the Penal Code for rioting with weapons and Section 394 of the Penal Code for voluntarily causing injury while committing robbery.
The news portal also reported Habibi as saying that the police are currently investigating whether the man was one of those who were allegedly cheated by the mall’s handphone traders.
Habibi said the mobile phone worker who was injured in the assault has since lodged a police report but those who claimed they were cheated did not do the same before the fight.
“They only lodged a report after the incident on Sunday. From what I understand, they responded to a call on Facebook to band together and claim a refund.
“We have identified the Facebook user behind the posting and will take action as necessary.
“I would like to stress that NGOs and individuals should refer the matter to the police instead of taking the law in their own hands,” he reportedly added.
Meanwhile, the police superintendent said the authorities will increase surveillance around Kota Raya to prevent more fights.
He confirmed that traders there suffered losses of about RM15,000 due to stolen items and damage to their premises.
Yesterday, The Star Online reported that the fight broke out at about 5pm when some 20 men armed with sticks and helmets stormed a handphone shop in the mall to seek refunds, and got into an argument with the workers that turned violent.
The brawl reportedly left two people injured.
They reportedly stormed the mall after the Muslim Consumers Association of Malaysia (PPIM) held a news conference there to highlight a cheating case involving a customer who was allegedly forced to pay RM10,000 for four phones.
The cheating case was first reported last week in Malay daily Utusan Malaysia said a man was allegedly “confined” in a small room for eight hours by several traders after he refused to buy the four handphones for RM10,000.
According to the post, the man had initially agreed to pay RM800 for the phones at RM200 each, thinking the deal a steal, but was shocked when he was told the rate had gone up to RM10,000.
When he told the traders that he wanted a refund of his RM800, they reportedly held him against his will and subsequently agreed to accept the RM5,000 that he withdrew from the ATM.
The blog post did not specify, however, if the traders were of Chinese descent.
