T

he Jakarta Police have made two further arrests in relation to the recent fatal stabbing of a Pangudi Luhur senior high school student.

Slow progress by the police in the case has attracted widespread media criticism leading to suspicions of a cover-up. The police maintain they have had difficulties in identifying the attacker due to the suspects’ lack of openness during questioning.

With the two latest arrests, five suspects have now been detained, identified only as H.C., T.G., F.J., F.B. and R.

“The culprit could be one of those five,” Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said on Friday.

The student, Raafi Aga Winasya Benjamin, 17, died on Nov. 5 after being stabbed at the Shy Rooftop restaurant in Kemang, South Jakarta. Raafi was dancing with his friends when the incident occurred.

The police have not yet named a suspect responsible for the actual stabbing and have only accused the detained suspects of ganging up on Raafi.

Baharudin also said that F.B. and R, the latest suspects to be arrested, allegedly had Raafi’s blood stains on their shirts. “Forensic tests confirmed that the blood belonged to Raafi,” Baharudin said.

“Several witnesses have also claimed that they saw both suspects at the crime scene,” he added.

Jakarta Police detective unit chief Sr. Comr. Gatot Eddy Pramono said that the police would continue to probe witnesses to determine which, if any, of the suspects stabbed the victim. “We are not going to reveal our witnesses’ identities for now,” Gatot said.

Previously, South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Imam Sugianto had said that investigators would consider using lie detectors during interrogation of the suspects.

Separately, Pangudi Luhur advocacy-team spokesman Mahendradatta suggested the police investigators were hiding something and he believed the identity of the killer was known to the police.

“I believe that they [the police] have found the key to unravel the case but what confuses me is the fact that they always deny this. This kind of situation will only arouse suspicions among the public,” he said.

With the sluggish pace of the police investigation many have begun to draw their own conclusions about what really happened to Raafi.

There were initial rumors that Raafi might have been killed by an assailant with connections to a high-ranking police officer.

Others speculated that Raafi’s killer could have been a member of a notorious local gang who was partying at the restaurant with the son of a senior executive of a major bank.