Saturday December 13, 2008
Retiree recalls ‘lost’ tunnel beneath Ipoh
By IVAN LOH
IPOH: A retired Ipoh City Council employee says that he had entered the “lost” tunnel beneath the Ipoh Town Hall in his younger days.
S. Arumugam, 73, said he stumbled upon the tunnel when he was working at the town hall in the 1960s, adding that the tunnel was linked to the Ipoh High Court.
One of the entrances to the pre-war tunnel used to be at the right wing of the building, he said.
“The tunnel led to the back of the hall, directly underneath the current stage area. Midway through the tunnel, there is an intersection which leads to the High Court,” he said at the town hall yesterday.
Arumugam said the connection to the High Court was sealed off with a grille gate.
Mystery to solve: Kulasegaran discussing with members of the committee tasked with investigating the tunnel during a meeting in Ipoh yesterday. Arumugam (inset) said he had stumbled upon the tunnel when he was working at the town hall during the 1960s. Contrary to earlier reports, Arumugam said the tunnel did not lead to the Ipoh Railway Station and the police station.
He believed that the tunnel was used to transfer prisoners to the High Court, a notion shared by councillor M. Kulasegaran, who is Ipoh Barat MP and heads a committee to investigate the tunnel.
“A former High Court judge once told me that suspects would be transferred to the court through the tunnel instead of being brought in from the front gates,” said Kulasegaran.
“I thought he was only joking and did not take it seriously,” he added.
The council’s senior engineer Khairul Anuar Nordin said officers from the Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry would be here next month to ascertain the tunnel’s existence.
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