Fraudulent Batu Kawa land deal did occur and we have evidence, says landowners’ spokesman

KUCHING: A man identifying himself as one ‘Michael Chong’ has claimed that the allegations over the ‘ fraudulent land deal’ in Batu Kawa are ‘ not baseless, but are the absolute truth’.

Speaking at a press conference here yesterday, Chong said the Democratic Action Party ( DAP) lawmaker Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei did apply for a court order for the purpose of demolishing a house a number of years ago. Chong, who was speaking on behalf of the affected landowners, said they had evidence to prove that the alleged ‘deal’ did take place.

According to him, the entire incident took place in 2013 when a landowner was constantly hearing rumours that the title of the land, where his house was sitting on, had been transferred.

The landowner then went to the Land and Survey Department ( LSD) to check the status of the property, and found out that the land had indeed been transferred, said Chong.

He said the landowner lodged a police report on April 8, 2013, after that – adding that the landowner’s property had been transferred to a person, who was not aware of the land deal until the landowner approached that person.

Chong said based on the records that the landowner had come across, the landowner had ‘sold off’ the land to the person for RM1.2 million.

It is learnt that that the person, said to have bought the land, also lodged a police report on Oct 17, 2013.

Chong claimed that the police did not look into the matter, despite having received the two reports.

He said the matter was brought to the attention of many when the landowner’s house was demolished in 2016.

The landowner then lodged another police report on Dec 5, 2016. Stressing that he had nothing personal against Wong, Chong said he wanted the DAP lawmaker to tell the people whether or not this case was fraudulent.

In response, Wong said the documentation produced as evidence during the press conference yesterday, showed that he was not involved in the land-transfer process.

“This, again, proves that I have been maliciously defamed by the few irresponsible Facebook users, who have yet to have the courage to come forward.”

Wong felt that if these quarters had any basis about the ‘defamatory messages and images’ shared on social media, then they should go to the police and identify themselves.

“However, none of them has done so. This group of people who hide behind social media platforms are the ‘rubbish’ of society, and ought to be punished according to the law,” stressed Wong.

On Monday, Wong lodged six police reports – calling for investigation into what he regarded as defamatory messages and images made against him on social media.

It marked the second time that he lodged similar reports against those whom he believed to be responsible for the online allegations, which he dismissed as ‘ being baseless’.