KUALA LUMPUR: Police have identified 13 children who were allegedly sodomised from the 402 victims rescued in raids on 20 welfare homes earlier this week.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said initially following the raids on Wednesday they discovered four victims who had allegedly been sodomised.
"Upon further screenings on the children, we identified nine others," he told reporters on Friday.
So far, 392 children were being screened by police while ten others, who are autistic, disabled and sick children were handed over to the Welfare Department, he said.
Razarudin said four men had been arrested involving these allegations and are currently being investigated under Section 14 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act for physical and sexual assault on children.
"We also arrested another man involving allegations of using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person. We have opened investigations into this case under Section 354 of the Penal Code," he said, adding that a woman was also arrested and had been charged in Negri Sembilan under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act.
Meanwhile, Razarudin said during the operations on Wednesday, a total of 159 suspects were arrested comprising 39 men and 120 women.
"A total of 171 suspects were initially arrested during the raids, but we remanded the 159 while the remaining individuals were released as they were underaged and not relevant to further investigations.
"These suspects have been remanded for between four and seven days and have been placed at the Shah Alam police centralised lock-up, as well as the Nilai and Seremban police lock-ups.
"We have also obtained interim custody orders for 49 of the rescued children who are under the age of five.
"They have been transferred to three shelters in Bukit Beruntung, Cheras and Seremban," he said, adding that the remaining victims would be transferred to shelters in phases.
He said a total of 19 investigation papers (IP) have been opened involving sixteen IPs in Selangor under Section 31(1)(a) of the Child Act, as well as two in Negri Sembilan under Section 31(1)(a) of the same Act and Section 6(1) of the Child Care Centre Act, while another IP was opened in Kuala Lumpur under Section 506 of the Penal Code.
It was reported that police had raided 20 welfare homes linked to the company early Wednesday morning.
Razarudin had confirmed that the homes raided were linked to the Global Ikhwan Group.
It was reported that police investigations into some of the welfare homes raided earlier have led to claims of sodomy and abuse against children.
Based on intelligence gathered, police found that some victims were sodomised by their caregivers.
Police also received information that they were also taught the act of sodomy and forced to sodomise other children in the home.
GISB had since denied allegations linking the company to child exploitation.