Rela man: I didn’t take a bribe to withdraw my report

KUALA LUMPUR: A Rela member has denied that there was bribery involved in the withdrawal of his police report against a businessman who allegedly assaulted him.

“I did not receive any monetary gain nor asset for retracting the police report lodged on Aug 18. I voluntarily retracted the report,” Melvin Cheong Mun Khai, 20, said.

He said the main reason he pulled back the police report was that he worked as bartender at night, which meant that his working hours would last till the next morning, making it difficult for him to attend court proceedings and monitor the progress of the case.

His statement, given at a press conference yesterday in the presence of his lawyer Yusof Mohamed Salleh, came about following remarks by a Rela operations director in September that Cheong should be investigated for corruption.

Initially, there had been a court case going on whereby businessman Datuk Seri Liow Soon Hee, 30, was charged with causing hurt to Cheong, 20, and another two persons at a temple compound here on Oct 27 last year.

Liow had pleaded not guilty. But Cheong subsequently withdrew his report against Liow. This led to the Ampang magistrate court granting a discharge not amounting to an acquittal to the accused.

The case involving the other two victims continues for trial.