PETALING JAYA – Three men, including two police officers, were detained yesterday after a suspect in an online gambling case claimed he was cheated by an offer to settle his pending court case.
Petaling Jaya district police chief ACP Nik Ezanee Mohd Faisal said the officers detained were a 38-year-old officer with the rank of ASP, and an Inspector, aged 34, who is attached to the Petaling Jaya District Police Headquarters.
“The other person detained is a civil servant working at the Petaling Jaya Court, aged 49.
“The case will be investigated under Section 420 of the Penal Code and they will be remanded for further investigations,” he told reporters today.
Nik Ezanee said the complainant was detained together with 35 of his employees on Oct 2 and was remanded for three days.
“On Oct 4, while on remand, the complainant claimed that he was brought to a senior investigating officer’s room at the Sea Park police station and met the court employee, who claimed to be a middle man who could cancel the complainant’s and his workers’ remand extensions and return seized items for a fee of RM800,000,” he said.
Nik Ezanee said the senior investigating officer then contacted a gambling activities expert to ensure that a negative report was issued to enable the case to be closed and ordered a man alleged to be a magistrate to cancel the reman extension of the complainant and his workers.
He said the complainant, through his wife, then handed over a deposit of 99,000 Singapore dollar (RM303,000) to the middle man on Oct 5. The complainant, however, realised he was cheated when the deputy public prosecutor issued charges on Oct 23.
The complainant then made a police report on Nov 4 that led to the arrest of a local married couple on the same day.
In a separate case, Nik Ezanee said the police detained a 34-year-old police personnel at Kampung Lindungan here, over suspected involvement in smuggling eight illegal immigrants yesterday morning.
He said the police personnel’s car was stopped at 6 am after he was found behaving suspiciously and initial investigations revealed two men and three women, all illegal immigrants, aged between 31 and 48, were in the car.
“Based on information obtained from the suspect, a raid was conducted at 6.30 am at a house in the vicinity and another three illegal immigrants comprising two men and a woman, aged 25 to 50, were detained.
“The case will be investigated under Section 26A of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 and those detained will be remanded for further investigation,” he said.
Nik Ezanee said the police have opened an investigation paper against the police personnel for threatening to make allegations and take action against the officer investigating his case, claiming he was being persecuted.
— BERNAMA
