The police today warned that it will take action against those who attempt to turn the i-City KFC fracas in Shah Alam into a racial issue.

When contacted by Malaysiakini , Shah Alam OCPD ACP Zahedi Ayob said the police will also act against racial comments on video sharing website YouTube, where videos of the Monday incident are posted.

NONE For now, he said, the police are investigating the incident under Section 323 of the Penal Code.

"We are acting on the altercation. Then the video was uploaded on YouTube - the comments that raise racial issues, we will take action against them.

"If it is newspapers that raise racial issues, then we will take action against the newspapers, too," he said.

Zahedi was referring to the 27-second Youtube video which showed an i-City KFC staff attacking a customer after he lashed out at the outlet's poor service.

Zahedi said the police will not be using the YouTube video in its investigation, but will rely on the outlet's CCTV instead.

"The YouTube video cannot be used, it has been edited. Do you think the recording is real?" he said.

'Suspects not under arrest'

Zahedi confirmed that a suspect identification session was held for the victim, Danny Ng, today.

"We did an identification parade for the complainant to identify who had assaulted him, to see whether he can identify the suspect or not.

“How are we going to bring charges if he can't recognise (the suspect)?" he said, adding that police are investigating three i-City KFC staff members.

NONE Zahedi added that the three men, all in their 20s, were not under arrest but had appeared in the identification parade at the Shah Alam district police headquarters at the police’s request.

The police have also recorded statements from at least 10 witnesses in connection with the case, he said.

He said police are waiting for Ng's medical report, saying: "We want to see if there are (injury) marks or not."

Outside parties should stay out

Yesterday, Malay rights group Perkasa said it will seek a meeting with i-City KFC staff as the victim had already received media attention, while the staff were receiving “unfair comments”.

The management and staff of i-City KFC declined to comment on the matter when Malaysiakini visited the outlet yesterday.

Meanwhile, deputy inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar issued a warning to parties unrelated to the fight to refrain from interfering in the matter.  

"This is a problem between the customer and the company and parties who are not involved should not interfere or try to instigate the situation," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Khalid said he felt the problem can be solved through discussions between the parties involved, without any outside interference. 

"In fact, even the police need not interfere, as there were no casualties, or report lodged," he added.