KUANTAN: The alleged gang bullying of a girl in a stairwell as depicted in a recent viral video did not take place in Pahang.
Pahang police chief Datuk Rosli Ab Rahman said this is the conclusion reached by the police in its probe into allegations that the video was recorded at a school in the state.
"On closer examination, it was found that the girls in the video were speaking in a Cantonese dialect used in Hong Kong.
"We (the police) went to a school (here where the bullying allegedly happened) and looked at the alleged venue of the incident, and spoke with the school management, but we did not find anything suspicious," he said.
He was speaking during a press conference at the Pahang Contingent Police Headquarters Tuesday.
Rosli said that the police, with the assistance of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), tried to track down the video's origin and found that there is little likelihood that the incident occurred in Malaysia.
In the video, a group of girls shove around, batter, verbally demean and strip the girl of some of her clothes. One girl slaps the victim, before repeatedly hitting her face with a shoe.
The victim, who was lying on the floor towards the end of the video, pleaded with her attackers to stop.
Other girls participated in roughing up the victim as they recorded the incident on a mobile phone.
Later, a Facebook posting was uploaded, which claimed that the incident took place at a secondary school here.
A 17-year-old teenaged girl had since lodged a police report to deny the FB posting's allegation that linked her to the incident.
The police had conducted investigation under Section 233 (1) (a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988.
The section deals with the offence of improper use of network facilities by knowingly making, creating, or soliciting, and initiating the transmission of any comment, request, suggestion or other communication that is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive.
The section explains that the offence is done with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.
Section 233(3) of the same act states that the offence is punishable with a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or up to a year’s jail, or both, upon conviction.