KOTA KINABALU, Feb 13 — In a botched kidnap/murder case here, a group of employees allegedly kidnapped their boss and killed him, before calling the victim’s family to demand a ransom.
Police said they have arrested seven individuals believed to involved in the murder, and are looking for an eighth suspect, a 45-year-old undocumented construction worker.
The group of eight were believed to have been disgruntled over not being paid their salaries for several months.
State CID chief SAC Salehhudin Abdul Rahman said that the victim, 30-year-old Teng Seng Yap was found in some bushes with multiple stab wounds to his body yesterday at about 3.40am near Kampung Karambunai, some 30 minutes from the state capital.
“However, the suspects including the workers and associates were detained prior to the discovery of the body, after police received a report from the victim’s father saying that his son had been kidnapped,” he said.
Teng’s father lodged a police report saying that he received a phone call demanding a ransom of RM100,000 for the release of his son.
“He received the call at about 1pm on February 10. From our investigations later, we believe his son had already been killed by the time the call was made,” he said, adding that the suspects had met Teng earlier to ask for their salaries.
Salehhudin said the taskforce set up to probe the ransom call arrested a 30-year-old, also an undocumented construction worker, the following day. The man is believed to be the main suspect in the case.
“Five more people, including three women, were later arrested following further investigations,” he said, adding that they were looking for the last suspect who has been identified as Osma Japarul Husin, 45.
