Police Dismantle Solo Batik Fraud Practices, Victims Have Mental Resilience

The police conducted an examination of the perpetrators of the fraud case at the Surakarta Police Headquarters, Tuesday (16/5/2023). (ANTARA)

SOLO - Surakarta City Police managed to uncover a fraud case on the Batik Solo Trans (BST) bus against a child who was mentally retarded and had gone viral on social media by arresting the perpetrator.

"The police managed to arrest the perpetrator of the fraud case, with the initials H, a resident of Bendotri Sukoharjo and is now being questioned at the Surakarta Police Headquarters for legal proceedings," said Head of the Surakarta Police, Kombes Pol. Iwan Saktiadi, quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, May 16.

According to the Police Chief, the perpetrator of the fraud case against one of the residents who experienced mental retardation who had gone viral was arrested by officers in the Sukoharjo area, on Monday.

The police chief said the incident began on May 8, 2023 at around 16.00 WIB. So along the way the victim on behalf of the initials FCI is a resident of Malangjiwan Karanganyar. The victim experienced mental retardation while perpetrator H, a resident of Bendosari Sukoharjo, a private job met inside BST.

The chronology of the incident was as follows by the perpetrator riding the BST from Jalan Adi Sumarmo while the victim followed on a BST ride from Colomadu Karanganyar along the way the perpetrator asked the victim where he was going? The victim replied that he would go to Singosaren Plaza to buy a cellphone and then asked how much money did he have? The victim mentioned a sum of Rp. 1 million to buy a cellphone.

The perpetrator and the victim were both on their way down in Ngarsopuro, at that time the perpetrator persuaded the victim to hand over the money and would be added to buy the cellphone. After handing over the money, the perpetrator took an online motorcycle taxi to return to his home in Bendosari Sukoharjo while the victim was left alone in Ngarsopuro.

The police chief said he saw the victim alone in Ngarsopuro, then one of the online motorcycle taxi workers came to the victim and asked the victim's identity.

"After knowing the identity of the victim, the online motorcycle taxi worker had uploaded a photo and his identity on social media so that the victim's family could pick him up or find out that the victim was in Ngarsopuro alone," he said.

The Criminal Investigation Unit of the Surakarta Police then conducted an investigation and succeeded in identifying the perpetrators. The police then arrested the perpetrators and processed them for investigation in accordance with applicable legal procedures.