Jakarta. Muhammad Farid Andika, the cofounder and former chief executive officer of Jakarta-based peer-to-peer lending startup Restock, is facing a maximum 20 years prison sentence after the police naming him as a suspect in an alleged illegal firearm ownership case. 

Farid allegedly brandished a firearm to bystanders who asked him to go to the police with them after his car brush against a motorbike in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta, on Friday. Farid left the scene immediately afterward, but not after a bystander caught his act on video, which enable the police to identify and detained him later that day. 

Chief Comm. Yusri Yunus, the Jakarta Police spokesman, said the police have enough evidence to charge Farid with illegal firearm ownership under the 1951 Emergency Law about Temporary Actions for Implementing Civil Court's Unitary Structure, Power, and Agenda. 

"MFA is subject to article 12 of the 1951 Emergency Law," Yusri said, referring to Farid by his initial, said on Saturday. 

The first paragraph of the article reads, "Whoever without the right to enter into Indonesia, makes, receives, tries to obtain, deliver or tries to surrender, control, carry, have in stock with him or have in his property, store, transport, concealing, using, or removing from Indonesia a firearm, ammunition or explosive material, is punishable by the death penalty or life imprisonment or maximum imprisonment of 20 years."

At around 01:00 a.m. on Friday, Farid, who drove a Toyota Fortuner sport utility vehicle, allegedly hit a motorcycle driven by an unidentified woman when he passed Jalan Kol. Sugiono in Duren Sawit, East Jakarta. 

Several bystanders then approached him, asking him to take responsibility for his alleged involvement in the accident and go to the police immediately.  

Instead of helping the victim, the Farid got angry while brandishing an airsoft gun. Then, he drove away while several online motorcycle taxi drivers helping the victim. One of the bystanders recorded the incident on video, which later went viral on social media.

Thanks to the video, the police were able to link the Toyota Fortuner's license plate to Farid's home address in an elite neighborhood at Patal Senayan, South Jakarta. 

"When he arrived at his residence, the driver was not there. But his parents let us know his last position. We later detained him at the parking lot of a shopping mall," Yusri said. 

Yusri also said that the police were still building a hit-and-run case against Farid. 

P2P Lending Startup

Farid is a co-founder and the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Restock, a Jakarta-based peer-to-peer (P2P) startup, the company said in a statement on Saturday. Farid had resigned from the post soon after the police named him as a suspect. 

"For the time being, we have appointed Tiar Nabilla Karbala as CEO of Restock.id," Rega Sardjono, the company's chief of sales, said in the statement. 

Tiar is a founder of Tunas Nusantara Kapital, a local venture capital that last year led a $1-million fund-raising for Restock. 

Farid's arrest came at a crucial juncture for the company as it is preparing to raise another capital injection next week.  

"God willing, next week we will help startups with a large enough investment value than ever before. We invite the public to be objective and calm in responding to existing issues," Rega said. 

Restock focuses on providing working loans to micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises and has disbursed more than Rp 247 billion ($16.9 million) in loans to its customers since the company was founded in February 2019.