MACC detains ASP, inspector for soliciting bribes

PUTRAJAYA: Two police assistant superintendent and an inspector suspected of taking bribes from operators of vice and gambling dens were detained by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in simultaneous raids in an operation in Malacca yesterday.
Also held in the operation were two other suspects who are civilians.
They were allegedly a middlemen who facilitated the bribe payout and the other an operator of a gambling centre who was under the surveillance of the MACC over several months.
Sources said the operation at 11am yesterday was launched after a public tip-off that alleged several police officers from two police districts had regularly solicited bribes.
Investigations showed that among those allegedly involved in the crime were those attached to the Malacca Centre and Jasin police headquarters.
Investigators are also looking for several more suspects including Malacca-based police officers.
Sources also said the vice and gambling den operators had grown so influential that they could exert their powers to transfer out police officers who refuse to be in cahoots with them.
It is learnt that many officers who feared the risk of being transferred out of the police district had caved in to the demands of the crooked operators.
The MACC is also investigating if such a fate that had befallen a district police chief in Malacca in the past and the link between the two civilian suspects and police's top management.
All five suspects who are aged between 31 and 41 are expected to be remanded today at the Putrajaya magistrates court.
MACC deputy commissioner (operations) Datuk Azam Baki who confirmed the arrests did not discount the possibilities of more individuals being detained in the coming days.