The father of a 14-year-old who was allegedly abused by several policemen, is worried that the matter will be covered up.

Retired factory worker M Muniandy is unconvinced that officers from the same police station where his son had been allegedly abused would be able to investigate the case without prejudice.

In view of this, he refused to comply with the investigating officer's order to take his son to the Section 11 police station in Shah Alam to have his statement recorded.

Contacted today, Muniandy said he will request Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar to transfer the case to the Bukit Aman federal police headquarters.

"One inspector called me last Friday asking me to take my son so that they can record his statement but I'm not going to," he said, adding that his son is also afraid to return to the police station after his harrowing ordeal.

The youth, whose identity is being withheld because his a minor, was detained overnight on Aug 8 at the police station on suspicion of theft.

During this period, he was allegedly forced to do 150 push-ups and when he complained of chest pains, a policeman kicked him on the leg and fractured it.

He also claimed that he was hit with a rubber hose, smacked with a slipper, punched with a boxing glove, had his toes stepped on and his shorts pulled down.

"He's obviously too terrified now to go back to the same police station," said the family's lawyer P Uthayakumar.

Written undertaking

Despite the assurance from Shah Alam police chief Abdul Wahab Embong, who reportedly promised action against the officers if found guilty, Uthayakumar said the family had little faith that the investigators would be objective.

"We have no confidence in the investigations if it is conducted by officers from the same police station as where the alleged incident took place. There will be a clear conflict of interests," he said.

"It would be, in other words, asking police officers to investigate their own friends. We are writing to the IGP to order Bukit Aman to conduct the investigation."

The lawyer stressed that the allegations were serious and the minor had been treated like a hardcore criminal.

On the possibility that the IGP might turn down the request, Uthayakumar said he will then demand that the investigating officers write a letter of undertaking to inform the family of the status or progress of investigations on a regular basis.

"We want an undertaking letter from the police that they would let us know, every two weeks, the status or progress of their investigations. We've had too many cases where investigations are said to be going on indefinitely until the issue dies out," he added.

Even then, Uthayakumar said the boy will not go to the police station to have his statement recorded but will only do so at the office of his lawyers.

"If any police officers want statements from the boy, they will have to come to my legal firm and get the boy's statement from there," he added.

Uthayakumar expressed disappointment that the government had yet to set up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission , which would have been mandated to deal with such a case.

The government seems not to have acted upon the recommendation although it was touted as among the most crucial among the Royal Police Commission's 125 recommendations, he added.