The Malaysian Insight

POLICE today obtained a five-day remand extension against 32 suspects to facilitate investigations into the murder of navy cadet Zulfarhan Osman Zulkarnain.

Four others, students of Universiti Tenaga Nasional in Bangi, however, were released on bail.

Magistrate Sharifah Muhaymin Abd Khalib was at the Sepang district police headquarters at 8.30am to hear the remand application.

The suspects, whose remand ended today, were arrested last week.

Zulfarhan was allegedly tortured to death after being accused of stealing a laptop.

Lawyer Sukhdave Singh Kashmir Singh, who represented three of the suspects released today, said the magistrate granted the parents of those in custody a 15-minute visit.

“They were all good and healthy,” said Sukhdave.

Zulfarhan, a third-year electrical engineering student at Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia (UPNM), died a week after he was allegedly tortured with an iron steamer, clothes hanger and belt over a laptop.

He was pronounced dead on June 1 at Serdang Hospital.

His family said Zulfarhan was picked up by an ambulance by the roadside clad only in a sarong in Sepang.

Police later arrested 32 UPNM students, who were also Zulfarhan’s compatriots under the Military Training Academy. 

Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said all 32 have been suspended from the university and academy, pending the murder investigation.

If found guilty, the students will also be expelled from the academy. Staff members and officers who did not act on the matter will also face action, he said. – June 9, 2017.