Saturday November 12, 2005

Police made me strip, says Chinese national

BY PARVEEN GILL

PETALING JAYA: A 35-year-old housewife claimed she was forced to strip at a police station in Sungai Buloh, and that several policemen and policewomen there had also taken her money.

This alleged incident and a complaint by a remisier that an investigating officer at the district police headquarters here had asked for a bribe surfaced barely a week after all police contingents were supplied with button badges against graft.

UPSET: The Chinese housewife holding up the report she lodged at the Federal Police Disciplinary Division and ACA.

On Nov 3, the housewife was travelling with another Chinese national in a car driven by their Malaysian friend when it was stopped at a police roadblock in Sungai Buloh.

The woman, who chose to remain anonymous, said she and the other Chinese woman produced their passports, but the policeman was not convinced that the documents were genuine.

Using a hand gesture, the policeman allegedly demanded RM500 from them.

“Since both of us were carrying valid passports, we refused to give the policeman anything. We were then taken to the police station,” she said.

The housewife claimed that when they arrived at the police station, a policewoman took five pieces of RM10 notes from her handbag. The money was divided among four police personnel.

She added that during a body search at the station, she was instructed to take off her clothes.

“A policewoman grabbed my breast and slapped me when I blushed.

“I was then forced to take off my undergarments and do five ear squats.

“I saw a policeman peeping then,” she said, adding that the room door was shut tight only when she screamed.

When her husband showed up later at the police station with their marriage certificate, the investigating officer also refused to consider the document as genuine.

The two Chinese women were only released on Nov 7 after the Immigration Department confirmed their passports were genuine.

Seputeh MP Theresa Kok accompanied the housewife to lodge a complaint at the Federal police disciplinary division and the Anti-Corruption Agency the next day.

In the other complaint, an investigating officer allegedly asked a remisier for cash when he came to the station after learning that the police had detained his friend’s wife, also a Chinese national.

The sergeant allegedly refused to speed up the passport verification process unless cash was paid. The remisier said the policeman did not demand a specific amount.

Petaling Jaya OCPD, ACP Mohd Hazam Abdul Halim said he would leave it to the Federal police and the ACA to investigate the complaints.

He, however, advised the housewife to also lodge a police report at the district police headquarters here for investigations to be conducted.

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