In what was initially thought as a prank gone awry, a new twist has emerged in the case of the alleged poisoning of a classmate.
Police arrested a Form One student for allegedly poisoning his classmate by mixing roach poison into his food on Thursday.
“We have arrested a 13-year-old schoolboy and also seized a box of cockroach poison,” said Sarawak CID chief SAC Datuk Dev Kumar.
According to Dev, the alleged incident took place at a school in Sri Aman, Sarawak, on Thursday afternoon.
He said the victim, also aged 13, began vomiting after eating some food allegedly given to him by his classmate.
“An initial investigation revealed that the suspect had brought a container of fried noodles and a box of roach poison to school. While in class, the suspect mixed some of the poison that was in powder form with the noodles.
“The suspect then offered the noodles to the victim, who then ate it. A few minutes later, the victim started vomiting. Seeing the incident the suspect panicked and passed the poison to another classmate who then informed the teacher of what had transpired,” said Dev.
A teacher rushed the victim to the Sri Aman Hospital where the boy was still being treated.
As for the suspect, he panicked and ran away from school after the incident.
Dev said the victim’s father had lodged a police report.
The case is being investigated under Section 328 of the Penal Code for causing hurt by poisoning.
However, in a surprise twist, it is now claimed that the poisoning was a form of revenge as the victim had allegedly bullied the suspect.
The claim was made by the suspect’s grandfather, who lodged a report on the matter.
“The man stated in the report that his grandson had been bullied by his classmate.
“The man claimed the victim had been extorting money and food from his grandson on a daily basis,” said Dev.
Police are investigating this report in connection with the food poisoning case.