Seven of 12 Penang traffic cops out on MACC bail
GEORGE TOWN: Seven of 12 highranking Penang traffic police officers, who were detained for alleged corrupt practices during a large-scale operation here on Tuesday, have been released on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) bail.
Two were released on Thursday, while five others were released yesterday.
Sources close to the investigation told the New Straits Times that they were released after MACC investigators obtained information needed for the case.
“As of now, MACC has five people in its custody to assist in investigation into the corrupt practices linked to the infamous lorry drivers’ protection racket.
“As for the rest, we can say that the investigators are satisfied with the outcome of the investigation,” the sources said.
The next course of action would be to wrap up investigation papers before submitting them to the prosecution for further instructions.
“From there, we will see whether MACC will proceed with the prosecution of the first group that was detained or wait for more arrests to be made,” the sources said. “But we do have a case against the majority of those arrested.”
The NST reported that MACC had established the involvement of a majority of high-ranking traffic police officers in corrupt practices linked to the lorry drivers’ protection racket.
The anti-graft body had found paper trails to pinpoint the involvement of the high-ranking traffic police officers in taking bribes from transport companies to overlook offences committed by their lorry drivers.
MACC had identified about 70 high-ranking officers and personnel in the northern states who may be involved in protecting lorry drivers from enforcement action.
The 12, with the rank of superintendent, assistant superintendent and an inspector from the Penang Public Order and Traffic Department, were the first batch of high-ranking officers and personnel to be detained. The total bribes received was close to RM500,000. Each suspect was alleged to have received between RM10,000 and RM25,000 monthly.