SUNGAI PETANI: Police are on the hunt for a man who had allegedly sexually-assaulted a seven-year-old girl, depicted in a video clip that went viral yesterday.
Kuala Muda district police chief Assistant Commissioner Saifi Abdul Hamid said police received two reports of the incident today, one of which was from the girl's mother.
Preliminary investigation showed that the man who was accused of committing the act is a friend of the girl’s family.
“The man had gone to the woman’s house in Sungai Lalang at 11pm Saturday and asked her if he could take the girl out to buy some food. He brought the girl home about two hours later,” he said.
Saifi said an initial report also showed that the woman had confronted the man after she saw a video of the incident on Facebook yesterday evening.
He allegedly told her that he was sorry before fleeing the scene.
The woman came to the Sungai Petani police station to lodge a report at 2.50am today.
Saifi said based on the video clip, the incident took place at a funfair in Sungai Petani.
He said the girl has been taken to Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital for medical examination.
The case has been classified under Section 14(a) of Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017.
It was reported that a video of a man holding a child on his lap and kissing her, with loud music playing in the background, had emerged on social media yesterday.
The video was first uploaded by Durian Media on Facebook. It claimed that the incident took place at a funfair in Taman Ria in Sungai Petani at 11.30pm Saturday.
Social activist Syed Azmi Alhabshi had called for social media users to stop circulating the video to protect the child.