6 COPS HELD OVER EXTORTION BID
They tried to extort money from two illegal gambling operators
AGROUP of policemen who tried extorting money from two illegal gambling operators found themselves in trouble when their peers caught wind of their devious plot.
The six men, including an inspector, were arrested between 10pm on Tuesday and 3am yesterday at the state and district police headquarters here, as well as at the Padawan and Lundu stations.
The two illegal lottery operators, from whom the rogue policemen tried to extort money, lodged a report against them, a police source said.
They claimed the rogue policemen had asked them to pay RM10,000 to avoid being arrested in an ongoing crackdown on illegal gambling activities.
The source said one of the operators paid RM2,000 while the other paid RM500 to the group.
The six policemen, aged between 25 and 53, were remanded for three days to facilitate investigations.
The suspects appeared calm when they were produced at the magistrate’s court in Petra Jaya, near here, yesterday.
Magistrate Zulhairil Sulaiman denied the suspects bail.
They were unrepresented. Zulhairil ordered them to be remanded until Aug 12.
State Police Commissioner Datuk Amer Awal said there would be no leniency for any policemen who abused their authority and commit crimes.
“It is intolerable.
“We will never protect officers abusing their power as their action will tarnish the image of the force,” he said at the state police headquarters here. Present was state CID chief Datuk Dev Kumar.
“We are in the process of questioning the suspects to get a clearer picture of what happened, how long they have been extorting money, how much is the amount and whether any other victims were involved.
“The two victims are businessmen... But we can’t reveal too much yet,” Amer added.