A Jakarta man so absorbed in his mobile game got the shock of his life recently when a couple of armed, plain-clothed officers arrested him out of nowhere.
The incident was caught by a CCTV camera, the clip of which has gone viral in Indonesia this week.
There was some suspicion among the public that the officers tried to set up the man, as it appeared that one of the officers planted evidence on him while he was pinned down on the floor. But police in Cengkareng, West Jakarta — where the incident reportedly took place on Tuesday — came out to deny the accusation and acknowledged that this was a false arrest.
“I can assure you that there was no entrapment. Why did we arrest him? Because at the time, not far from [the crime scene] there was this suspicious-looking man who was playing on his phone,” Cengkareng Police Chief Khoiri told reporters yesterday, adding that the man was released less than 24 hours after his arrest since there was no evidence incriminating him.
At the time, Khoiri said that the plain-clothed officers in the video were on the trail of drug runners in West Jakarta. The spot where they made the false arrest was supposedly a hotbed for illegal narcotics transactions.
The man who was falsely arrested, who is identified as Ade Gunawan, said he was hanging out in front of a store to be able to catch Wi-Fi from inside so he can play a mobile game on his phone.
Two alleged drug dealers were arrested that evening, and they both said that they were not acquaintances of Ade.
Police say they may consider legal action against those who post footage of Ade’s false arrest online with the accusation that the officers planted evidence on him.
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