Police Arrest Persecutor Of Junior High School Students In Gorontalo

An alleged perpetrator of the persecution of SS Junior High School students (right / blurry photo) was secured at the Gorontalo City Police Headquarters, Tuesday (19/9/2023). ANTARA / HO-Humas Gorontalo City Police.

GORONTALO - Gorontalo City Police have arrested an alleged perpetrator of molesting junior high school (SMP) students who had been recorded in a video circulating on social media (WhatsApp).

Head of the Gorontalo City Police Criminal Investigation Unit, Kompol Leonardo Widharta, said that his party was hunting down and arresting the alleged perpetrator with the initials SS (16) after receiving information from the public.

"We immediately moved and pocketed the identity of the victim, the witnesses, and pointed to the alleged perpetrator," Leonardo said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, September 19.

The victim with the initials RU (13) is a student at a junior high school in Gorontalo City. Meanwhile, the perpetrator is SS (16) has dropped out of school.

In the 30-second video, it appears that a boy wearing white shorts and a black t-shirt is carrying out the persecution by blindly blaming another child.

The victim, RU, wearing a school uniform and jacket and carrying a black bag, received a lot of punches and kicks in several parts of his body from the alleged perpetrator SS.

Even in the video, Leonardo said, it was heard that the victim had several times issued an apology using the Gorontalo dialect, but the alleged perpetrator continued to abuse him.

After being traced, he said, it turned out that the video was recorded by another child and occurred on Friday (15/9) at around 16.00 WITA in the Taman Kota area, Limba U II Village, South City District, Gorontalo City.

"We are still investigating who was involved and recording and distributing the video. Currently, the alleged perpetrator has been detained at the Gorontalo City Police Headquarters to undergo further investigation," he said.

Apart from the alleged perpetrators and victims, Leonardo said, his party will examine witnesses to reveal the motive for the abuse.