Victim in ‘hotpot Datuk’ slapping incident a son of another Datuk

PETALING JAYA: The victim who was slapped by a Datuk and another man at a hotpot restaurant turns out to be the son of another Datuk.

According to Sin Chew Daily, Datuk Kwan Foh Kwai who is Perak Chinese Assembly Hall's deputy president, confirmed that it was his son who was slapped in the incident.

"It is regrettable that this happened. We have lodged a report the same night after the incident.

"I am not going to deny it was my son because I do not wish to see unfair posts made about him being circulated online," he said.

When asked about his son's injury, Kwan refused to divulge much, only stopped short at saying he would fully let the police investigate the matter.

He also added that for now, there is no plan to initiate any legal action.

The argument broke out at the hotpot restaurant in Tropicana Avenue on Tuesday (Jan 12) night, hours before the movement control order was implemented.

Two videos, one 29 seconds and the other 51 seconds long, of the incident had been posted and gone viral on social media.

According to the initial police report, the two suspects also slapped a waitress.

However, Chinese vernacular newspapers reported that the suspect slapped the victim's girlfriend.

In the 29-second video, the two men can be seen slapping an unidentified victim, presumably the complainant, while gesturing aggressively at him. One of them also slapped a woman as they were about to leave the restaurant.

The longer video shows one of the suspects being held back by another person as he aggressively tried to slap a man wearing a blue T-shirt.

However, as he was being pacified, he knocked down a chair before slapping a woman.

This led to another round of a heated argument with the man who was threatened earlier by one of the suspects.

The second suspect then approached the man, tried to hit him with his hand and cornered him against a wall.

"Police will get a remand order to detain them further to investigate their background, as well as to ascertain if they are linked to any gang activities," Selangor CID chief Senior Asst Comm Datuk Fadzil Ahmat said in a statement.

He said the older man, a Datuk, had a police record dating back to 2019 for criminal intimidation.