Assistant superintendent of police among those detained for involvement with massage parlours

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) detained 16 personnel from two local councils in Selangor and an officer-in-charge of station (OCS) who is an assistant superintendent of police (ASP) on Monday and last week.
The suspects, who are in their 30's and 50's, are believed to be in cahoots with the operators of several illegal massage parlours and allowed the businesses to flourish after allegedly receiving inducements for years.
Among the local council personnel held was a high-ranking officer attached to the business licensing department.
MACC director of investigations Datuk Azam Baki said today that the commission had moved in to investigate the menace as the relevant units of local councils tasked to clamp down on such activities had appeared to be indifferent to the the dozens of complaints lodged by the public.
"The public had to raise this with us when there was inaction by local councils. Raids are carried out by the local council personnel but the very next day its business as usual at these places. How can this possibly happen and who are they protecting? The local councils should be monitoring their respective jurisdictions and act to put an end to these activities which are detrimental to society.
"However, years of public complaints have fallen in deaf years. Hence, we cannot just watch this go by. That is why we had to step in. We urge the local councils to be more sensitive to public complaints and strictly enforce the law, " he told theSun when contacted.
He said the MACC had also received information that there were legally licensed massage centres among the thousands and local council personnel had strictly enforced the law on these business but were lax on the illegal ones.
Azam said the arrests in the operation is the tip of the iceberg and the MACC would be pursuing more of such illicit businesses in the coming days.
"MACC's powers are confined to corruption cases," he said, adding that the power to act on other offences committed by the operators and owners of the business premises is under the purview of local councils.
"The onus to take action on these individuals are in the hands of the local councils. There are thousands of these illegal massage parlours. We urge and welcome the public to channel tip-off or information they may have on these parlours to us. We also welcome the local councils to engage us in discussion to jointly put an end to this scourge." he said.
Today, 11 of those detained including the licensing officer were remanded for five days to assist in investigations. The MACC said an ASP and four other local council members detained days earlier were freed on bail after questioning.