ALOR STAR: The boyfriend of a woman being sought in connection with a viral video in which her 3-year-old son was purportedly forced to inhale syabu, has been arrested earlier today.
Kedah Criminal Investigation Department chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Mior Faridal Al Athrash Wahid said police have obtained a four-day remand order against the man until Sunday.
He said the 28-year-old man was arrested at the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital at 3am today.
It is learnt that the man was caught when he went to the hospital to meet up with the boy's mother who was accompanying her son, who has been hospitalised for further medical check-up.
Mior Faridal said police have referred the case to the deputy public prosecutor for further action.
Police have classified the case under the Child Act 2001.
It was reported that the boy's paternal grandmother had lodged a police report on Tuesday after the man sent the videos on the boy to her family.
One of the videos, a 16-second clip, showed the boy sitting at the back seat of a car, holding the meth pipe. A stack of RM50 and RM10 notes is strewn on his lap.
His mother's boyfriend can be heard talking to the boy, asking the child in Tamil, “Are you already high?
Following the police report made by the grandmother, the woman turned herself in at the Kuala Muda police headquarters, with her son.
However, the woman denied that her son had been forced to take meth. She said the meth pipe the boy was holding in the video, was empty.
Medical tests have also shown that the child was free from any traces of drugs.
It was reported that the woman had been living separately from her husband after she was caught for drug abuse with her boyfriend at a house in Taman Gurun Jaya in February last year.
The boy has been living with his father since before she came over to the house, asking to bring the child home for a while, but have failed to return him until the video went viral on social media.