One month after three senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Comission officers were charged with a robbery involving close to RM1 million in KLIA, police found that evidence has gone missing.
Police have lost evidence related to the high-profile robbery case where three Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers have been charged.
An official police statement released late last night confirmed that RM11,700 and a wallet have gone missing from Menara 2 of the Selangor police headquarters in Shah Alam. It was learnt that the wallet also contained an MACC identification card and a credit card.
A police report was made about the missing items at about 8pm on Nov 15.
“The missing items is not the US$300,000 cash which was reported to have been robbed in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Sept 15. The missing cash evidence is the money which was seized and belonged to two of the three suspects who were arrested and have been charged in court,” said the statement, issued by the Selangor police’s CID department.
Police have launched an investigation on the missing items.
The case has been classified under Section 201 of the Penal Code for “causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed, or giving false information touching it, to screen the offender” and Section 457 for… housebreaking by night in order to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment”.
It was learnt that there have been no arrests so far.
Disciplinary action
A source told FMT that the investigating officer of the MACC case had discovered the loss of the items from his office more than a week ago.
“An attempt was made to investigate the missing evidence internally, but the officer was later ordered to lodged a police report on the matter,” said the source.
It was understood that the missing evidence was vital to the court case and these new developments could cause a discharge not amounting to acquittal for the three MACC officers facing robbery charges.
It was also learnt that the police officer in charge of the items could be facing disciplinary action over what is believed to be a breach in police procedures.
It was learnt that police procedures state that case exhibits involving cash are to be kept in safety deposits, only located in the rooms of a district police chief, state police chief or state CID chief, and not in an office.
On Oct 7, three MACC officers were charged with nine counts of robbery and abetting two others with robbing three Singaporeans of US$300,000 (RM944,701).
MACC deputy superintendent S Vijayarao, 33, and assistant superintendents Wan Elfie Shafizy Wan Ahmad, 30, and Assistant Superintendent Aziz Jaafar, 48, had pleaded not guilty to the charges at the Sepang Sessions Court.
The trio was charged with assisting two other men still at large – T Sritharan, 32, and D Nagarajan, 34 – to rob the Singaporeans – Hameed Saadik Batcha, Abd Rahman Maricar and Mohamad Zakkaria Mohamed Shatik – who were all money-changers.
On Nov 8, one of the two was arrested after he turned himself in.
The robbery was allegedly committed in the men’s toilet, besides the Deli Franc Restaurant, on the first floor of the satellite building at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport about 11.25pm on Sept 15.
The case is fixed for mention on Dec 6.
