Head of Lotim Ponpes Suspected of Having Sex with a Female Student Detained by Police

JAKARTA - The West Nusa Tenggara Regional Police (Polda NTB) said the head of one of the pesantren (ponpes) in the Sukamulia area, East Lombok Regency (Lotim) with the initials AJN was suspected of having sex with his students by running a misleading or deviant mode from religious teachings.

"So, this AJN suspect manipulated the situation, took advantage of the vulnerability of the victim and committed deception to make the victim moved to commit an act of sexual intercourse or obscene act. This is done repeatedly," said Director of Women and Children Protection and Prevention and Handling of Human Trafficking (PPA-PPO) of the NTB Police, Kombes Ni Made Pujawati, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, February 19.

From the interim development of the investigation, Pujawato explained that a similar modus operandi was also applied by AJN, who is now a suspect for other victims.

However, in this case, Pujawati explained that her party had only received reports from two victims from the AJN female students. The two reported to the police with legal assistance from the Mataram Child Protection Agency (LPA).

Although there were only two victims in the report, he emphasized that his party had obtained sufficient evidence in determining AJN's status as a suspect.

In addition to obtaining evidence from the victim and witnesses, the police also strengthened the results of the victim's autopsy and the statements of experts, ranging from psychologists who deal with the victim's trauma, academics in the field of criminal law to the Ministry of Religion.

"Then, we also processed the crime scene and collected evidence such as documents, there were clothes, mini cameras and cellphones, and that convinced us that the AJN case should be raised to the investigation stage," he said.

The NTB Police named AJN as a suspect by applying Article 6 letter c Juncto Article 15 of Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 12 of 2022 concerning Sexual Violence Crimes, with a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison for acts of molestation or repeated intercourse in an educational environment.

Pujawati explained that her party had detained the suspect AJN at the NTB Police Dittahti Detention Center. The detention has been in effect since the arrest at Lombok International Airport, Wednesday (18/2).