Loan shark allegedly razes 3 houses, vehicles in Penang but victim claims wrong address

He did not owe debts to moneylenders, but still found himself a victim of their harassment.
Three houses and nine vehicles in Penang were recently destroyed in a blaze believed to be the alleged work of a loan shark.
The fire, which broke out at about 4.50am on Tuesday (June 24), engulfed three terrace houses and gutted five cars and four motorcycles, reported Bernama.
Seberang Prai Utara district police chief Anuar Abdul Rahman confirmed they had received a report from one of the victims, who believed loan sharks had purposefully started the fire.
A warning note addressed to a debtor had purportedly been found at one of the affected houses a week ago.
In a viral Facebook post uploaded on Wednesday, a user named Mohamad Asrul claimed to be one of the fire victims.
He said that he and his neighbour had discovered petrol and paint outside their homes on June 16, with a bottle of leftover petrol and a letter left at the gate of his neighbour's property.
The note was addressed to someone else living in the same neighbourhood and contained the individual's name and identification card number as well as with a threat to burn down the house.
Asrul said they lodged a police report on the same day.
A week later, his neighbour's home was torched, with flames spreading to other houses and destroying them too.
He wrote in his post that he and his neighbours were not the ones who had borrowed from loan sharks, but had still become victims.
District police chief Anuar said they are probing the incident and investigating it as a case of criminal intimidation, according to the New Straits Times.
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