LAUTOKA – An internet café owner from the Fiji town of Lautoka remains in hospital under military guard after an alleged beating by police officers.

FBC News reports Rajneel Singh still has wounds from the assault which he says were inflicted by police officers from the Ba Police Station on Friday.

The acting Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho said he will get to the bottom of the case.

Singh said he found details of plans to destabilise the government on an unattended computer in his cafe, and then called police – who he claims then assaulted him.

FBC News reports the police chief has called the military into the investigation to ensure there is no interference by police officers in the Western Division.

ingh, 32, an internet café operator in Lautoka, claimed he was “tortured with a hot rod” and dumped at a pine forest between Nadi and Sigatoka.

Brigadier-General ni Qiliho confirmed to the Fiji Sun newspaper that Singh had called him for help.

He said an investigating team from Internal Affairs in Suva had been dispatched to Lautoka to conduct an inquiry and report back to him.

Singh claimed police officers started behaving strangely after he sent copies of the plans to undermine the Government to Brigadier-General Qiliho and the Attorney-General’s office.

He alleged he found the plans in his computer after the previous user had forgotten to log off.

Singh said he met Brigadier-General Qiliho at Denarau when the acting commissioner visited Lautoka and discussed the alleged plans.

During the meeting, Brigadier-General Qiliho gave his telephone number to him.

Singh said it was lucky that he had the acting commissioner’s number otherwise he might have been left for dead.

He said he then called him to report that he had been assaulted by the police. He said the military picked him up and brought him to hospital.

“Now they are guarding me to protect me,” he said.

Singh said the acting commissioner had instructed the Police in the West to investigate after his initial report. He is married with a four-month-old boy

It is understood that Brigadier-General Qiliho is concerned about the alleged Police brutality.

This will be the first case of this kind to come to him since his appointment.

- PNC sources