Datuk Seri missing, police testing charred remains in Lumut

GEORGE TOWN: Police have set up a task force to investigate the disappearance of a 43-year-old businessman, a recently minted "Datuk Seri", who is believe to have been abducted.
The task force was set up after the businessman's family which has been unable to contact him for about a week, lodged a police report.
The investigation is now centred on whether a badly burnt and decomposed body of a man, which was found by hunters in Lumut, Perak, about 4.30pm last Saturday, is that of the missing man.
Following the discovery of the body, Manjung district police chief ACP Tengku Mohd Zailan Tengku Ahmad Shah said in a media statement that the man, whose body was about 70% burnt, could have been dead for four or five days.
Meanwhile, Federal police CID director Datuk Seri Mohmad Salleh said DNA profiling with blood samples take from the businessman's family are under way to verify if the charred body found in Lumut is that of the businessman.
It is learnt that the DNA results would only be available in about three days.
Mohamad said police believe the businessman had not been abducted for ransom as the family had so far not received any ransom demand.
He said based on preliminary investigations, it is believed that the motive of the abduction could be related to the man's "business activities".
He said police are also checking if the businessman has had a run in with the law in the past, as preliminary checks showed that he has a previous record for a drug-related offence.