An Indian-origin woman is suing a police officer and the Hong Kong government for racial discrimination against her teenaged son four years ago. Arjun Singh, 15, alleged that officer Hung Kai-kam ignored his complaint and arrested him after he and a Chinese woman accused each other of assault at a railway station four years ago, the South China Morning Post reported.
Anita, the mother of the teenager, is suing Hung and the Hong Kong government for breach of the law against racial discrimination. She and her son want an apology from Hung, They also demanded that the defendants conduct be investigated. Arjun, now studying physics at King’s College London, said he had nightmares and anxiety as a result of the incident.
A district court heard Wednesday that Arjun, who was 11 at the time, bumped into the woman, Chan Yuet-lai, when rushing past her on an escalator in Wan Chai MTR station Jan 6, 2010. Chan grabbed Arjun by the arm and refused to let him go, the court heard.
Arjun accused Hung of favouring Chan’s version of the incident over him because of his race. “Since there was a crowd, the officer had to act as if they were listening to us but they weren’t interested,” Anita was quoted as telling the court. She said Hung wanted to “show his power”.
Anita added that several MTR staff members guarded her son “as if he was a criminal”, leaving him “traumatised and terrorised”. The teenager said Hung arrested him without sufficient investigation. Defence counsel Stewart Wong Kai-ming told the court that Hung had spoken to Singh, his mother and two other witnesses for some 40 minutes before making the arrest.
But Anita said that Hung told her son he was going to arrest him in their first conversation, and repeatedly mentioned the word “arrest”. Wong said that neither she nor her son had accused Chan of any crime at the scene. The teenaged boy was later released on bail.
(Source: IANS)
