The 26-year-old patron was probably about to dive into his meal at a Desa Petaling restaurant when five strangers accosted him.
In plainclothes, the strangers identified themselves as "policemen", barking orders telling him to stop eating because he was about to be hauled to the Salak Selatan Baru police station for questioning.
Once at the police station, the young man realised that the five strangers were actual cops. He was then allegedly placed in a room with his former boss — an illegal gambling racketeer who accused him of taking RM13,500 from the gambling action.
Despite the young man's pleas, the ex-boss demanded RM50,000 in "reimbursements" and, for good measure, beat up his former machai for 20 minutes with a stick until he suffered neck and hand injuries.
The only thing missing from this farce is a camera, lighting, film crew and the director yelling "cut!". This "movie plot" is well rehearsed: rogue police answering the beck and call of gangsters, likely witnessed — in loathing and resignation — by conscientious colleagues at the police station, compounded after the abomination was publicly exposed.
This makes us wonder what other "chores" have been done in their roles as gangsters' "outsourced" minders?
Rogue police officers operating outside the rule of law and order abounded for years; the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder a grisly example of this lunacy.
Policemen have been convicted of armed robberies and drug dealing, selling drugs confiscated from peddlers.
We are disturbed at the way the obscenity played out: it was well-executed, a routine for these rogue cops to operate with impunity.
The implication is obvious: somewhere in the pecking order, a superior officer or officers is covering up for the excesses. The pertinent inquiry? Is this a little blot or is the blot contagious? The answer is as alarming as it is horrifying.
The arrest of the five cops who allegedly acted as minders for the illegal gambling boss has triggered a far-reaching consequence: will a Bukit Aman unit conducting a parallel investigation reveal a bigger rot?
In recent years, civilians allegedly abducted by plainclothes policemen have been widely reported, but investigations stopped there. The audacity of these hitmen wielding blank-cheque authority is chilling.
The home minister and inspector-general of police have plenty to answer for this absurdity and the best platform to grill them is in an immediate Dewan Rakyat inquiry.
But over the years, it didn't matter who the home minister or IGP was: the predecessors ignored calls for investigations and reforms, despite police reports and lawsuits filed by affected families.
We hope this latest villainy is the straw that breaks the camel's back, with a thorough and comprehensive investigation done to put an end to such rogue police elements.