The Malaysian Insight

EIGHT traffic police officers from Ampang district are under investigation after RM18,000 was found under the desk of one of them.

The money was found when the Integrity and Standard Compliance (JIPS) team of Bukit Aman conducted a raid at 11.50pm on Tuesday.

The JIPS team acted after a public complaint that one of the suspects had allegedly extorted money from a Vietnamese cook hours earlier. 

It is understood that the amount asked was RM1,500 but the victim’s friend could only come up with RM500.

It is not known if the money was paid but a complaint was lodged on the alleged extortion with JIPS. The suspect has been arrested and remanded.

The JIPS team is investigating to find out where the RM18,000 came from and whom it belonged to.

Ampang Jaya district police chief Hamzah Alias confirmed the arrest.

“Only one was directly mentioned. So we have remanded him for two days. The rest, even though not remanded, will also be investigated,” said Hamzah.

JIPS director Commissioner Abdul Ghafar Rajab said the department would investigate where the money found in the office came from.

The JIPS investigation will run parallel with the one by Ampang police.

Abdul Ghafar said JIPS had been making many arrests of errant police personnel.

“Not just (for) extortion, some were detained for drug abuse and other offences,” he said. 

JIPS is empowered to act against personnel found to be negligent or slacking in their duties.

The arrest of the eight comes a month after MACC detained senior cops in Malacca over an alleged protection racket involving illegal gambling dens and massage parlours in the state.

Following that, Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar ordered a major reshuffle involving the senior officers implicated in the case and several others from the Malacca police contingent.

Some were transferred to Bukit Aman while the rest were transferred to other departments pending investigation by MACC and the internal inquiry conducted by the police. – June 22, 2017.