Police arrest mother of two children who fell from Tampoi apartment

JOHOR BAHRU - Police have arrested the mother of a girl who died and her brother who was seriously injured after the children are believed to have fallen from the 12th floor of an apartment in Tampoi on Sunday.

Johor police chief Datuk Ab Rahaman Arsad said based on information, a police team from the Criminal Investigation Division of the Johor Bahru North district police headquarters arrested the 37-year-old foreign woman in the Tampoi area at noon on the same day.

"A check found that the suspect did not have any previous criminal record and the results of the initial urine screening test conducted were also found to be negative," he said in a statement yesterday.

Ab Rahaman said an application for remand on the suspect under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code had been applied for and approved for four days, starting today.

He said several witnesses at the scene were also called to record their statements to assist in the investigation.

The case is being investigated under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act 2001, which is child abuse, neglect, abandonment or exposure.

"The real cause and motive of the incident are still under investigation and we believe that the arrest of the victim's mother will unravel the real cause of the incident," he said.

At the same time, he called on the public to give the police space to conduct a thorough investigation and not make any speculation that could disrupt the investigation process.

Earlier, Johor Bahru North district police chief ACP Radin Ramlan Radin Taha was reported to have said that the eight-year-old victim was found on the seventh floor of the apartment block at 7.59am, followed by her 10-year-old brother a minute later.

The incident also went viral on the Threads platform after being uploaded by members of the public who were around the swimming pool near the location of the incident. - BERNAMA