GEORGE TOWN: The incident in which an eight-year-old girl was reportedly splashed with hot water by her father at Kampung Melayu flat in Air Itam here last Thursday, occurred not because she was caught stealing RM10 from her mother.
Instead, according to Timur Laut Police District chief ACP Che Zaimani Che Awang, the father had allegedly done so because he was angry and furious when he returned home and found that his four children aged between three and nine, including the victim, had finished all the food prepared by his wife.
“The incident where the victim allegedly stole RM10 from her mother was an old incident and it was not the reason the father splashed hot water on the girl, causing her to suffer scald burns on her arms, ribs and chest,” he told reporters here today.
He said in the 1am incident, the man, who is a pre-paid card sales agent, had just returned home from work and was expecting to find his dinner waiting for him.
“Unfortunately, all the food prepared by his wife had been eaten by his children.
“Hungry and furious, he stormed into the living room where his three older children were sleeping, woke them up before he scolded and beat them up. He also took a bowl of hot water from their water filter machine and splashed it on the victim,” he said.
Che Zaimani said, the man’s act was witnessed by his wife and other children, but no one did anything to stop him.
After the incident, he said the man and his wife were believed to have fled to an unknown destination with their youngest child for fear of being arrested.
“Their eldest and third children are now staying with their grandmother who is living at the same flat. Police are in the midst of tracking down the couple who were using a white Proton Saga with a registration plate number PCK 9818,” he said.-- Bernama