The brutal murder of a 20-year-old university student in her dormitory has renewed scrutiny on safety lapses in Cyberjaya, a township hailed in the 1990s as Malaysia’s Silicon Valley but now notorious for crime.
Maniishapriet Kaur Akhara, a University of Cyberjaya undergraduate, was found dead on Tuesday due to blunt force trauma to the head, Sepang district police said on Thursday.
“Investigation at the scene found no signs of forced entry into the victim’s residence. Further examination of the victim’s body revealed injuries to the head,” said district police chief Norhizam Bahaman.
The autopsy did not find signs of rape, he added, refuting claims widely circulated on social media that she had been sexually assaulted before being killed. There is a manhunt out for several suspects in the murder, with police saying they are close to making arrests.
Her murder has once again turned the spotlight on the reputation of the city of 140,000 as a hotbed of crime.
Conceived as a twin to the federal administrative capital of Putrajaya, Cyberjaya was meant to anchor the country’s digital ambitions. While those early hopes faded, the area is now undergoing a revival, driven by a surge in data centre projects under the government’s push to position Malaysia as a regional digital infrastructure hub.
