KUALA LUMPUR: A grieving elderly couple, who lost their son on July 1, are now having to deal with harassment allegedly linked to loan sharks.
MCA Public Services and Complaints Department chairman Datuk Seri Michael Chong said the elderly couple were unaware of the circumstances that led to the death of their 35-year-old son but believed it could have been linked to ah longs.
According to Michael, the first incident happened on Aug 5, when the family’s machinery business premises in Sungai Buloh were splashed with yellow paint, followed by brown paint the next day and red paint on Aug 8.
Besides these incidents, Michael said the family had also received WhatsApp messages allegedly demanding payment and threatening their business premises.
Despite the family lodging a police report at the Sungai Buloh police station on Aug 6, he said the harassment continued.
Meanwhile, the deceased’s mother, who wanted to be known as Lai, 65, said a p-hailing rider arrived at the family’s business premises at about 2.30pm on Aug 5 over an order to collect three air compressors but there was no such order. When the rider called the individual who had allegedly placed the order, the person asked that her son repay his debts.
“We were very afraid. We knew our son had died, but we knew nothing about this,” she said.
Meanwhile, MCA deputy youth chairman Mike Chong Yew Chua said there had been a recent increase in cases involving loan sharks, which could be due to online gambling activities during the recent FIFA World Cup.
This could have been due to football punters turning to unlicensed moneylenders, eventually leading to loan sharks harassing their families to settle their debts.
Mike said an explanation would also be sought to determine how some loan sharks had knowledge that victims’ families had lodged police reports against them.
He cited this case as an example, where the family allegedly received a threatening message from the suspected loan sharks less than an hour after lodging a police report.
