Prodigy sues police chief for prejudice

A 12-year-old prodigy is suing the police for discriminating against his Indian race after he was arrested for assaulting a woman when, according to him, he was the one being beaten.

Hong Kong-born Arjun Singh (pictured), who was 11 when he had an encounter on an escalator with a woman that led to him being detained for five hours, had lost confidence in the police and suffered nightmares and depression as a result of his ordeal, according to a statement of claim filed at District Court yesterday.

Singh, a gifted child who, lawyer Michael Vidler said, had been accepted by an overseas university, was seeking compensation and an apology from the Commissioner of Police and Constable Hung Kai-kam.

He and his family said Hung and another unidentified officer breached the Race Discrimination Ordinance by failing to provide a policing service to the boy on January 6 last year. 'I'm very sad,' the prodigy's mother, Anita, said yesterday. 'My son was a just an 11-year-old boy. Instead of helping him, the police arrested him.'

She said they also failed to serve a wider cause. 'Discrimination happens all the time,' she said.

Vidler said the boy and Chan Yuet-lai had an argument after he accidentally brushed the woman's hand when walking up an escalator at Wan Chai MTR station.

The boy said sorry, but the woman shouted at him, grabbed his arm, bruising him, and tore his jumper, Vidler said. She held the boy for more than five minutes during which he tried to struggle free, but failed.