Police quiz PKR youth chief over PI's statutory declaration

Police quiz PKR youth chief over PI's statutory declaration
10 July, 2008

(Bernama) - Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin was called in for questioning by police today in connection with a police report he made on July 4 concerning private investigator (PI) P. Balasubramanian, who made a statutory declaration (SD) pertaining to the Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu murder case on July 3, only to retract it the next day.

Shamsul Iskandar who was accompanied by PKR Youth vice chief Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainudin and Kuala Lumpur PKR Youth chief Md Zaman Md Tasi and several other executive committee members of the movement, arrived at the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) at the Federal police headquarters here at 11am.

In his police report. Shamsul had alleged that the PI had been coerced to the make the retraction.

Shamsul Iskandar said police needed a statement from him to facilitate investigations into his report.

“Now there are two SDs by P.Balasubramaniam. It is important which one is right be determined,” he told reporters when met outside the CCID.

“I also urged the police to record a statement from Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak over the SDs. The allegations made in the first SD were very serious. The police must get to the bottom of the entire matter quickly,” he said.

In his first SD, Balasubramaniam had alleged that Najib knew Altantuya and had met her in several places but in the second, retracted all the contents in the first, claiming he had made the first under duress.

Following the events, Najib maintained what he had earlier said about the matter, that he neither knew Altantuya or had ever met her.

The PI and his family went missing on Saturday and police, with the help of Interpol, traced him to an Asean country.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar told reporters in Kuala Lumpur here today that Balasubramaniam had told Malaysian police officers who went to interview him that he feared for his and his family’s safety following the publicity his SDs had received.

Syed Hamid, however, would not reveal his whereabouts.