Police inspector charged with accepting RM4k bribe

SANDAKAN: A police inspector was today charged in the Sessions Court here today with two counts of accepting bribe involving RM4,000.
Yugeswaran Surinaraina, 28, from the Sandakan Commercial Crime Investigation Division, however pleaded not guilty to both charges before judge Ummu Kalthom Abdul Samad.
On the first count, he was charged accepting RM2,000 from one Abd Ghani Mohd Alip as an inducement for no action to be taken against another person, Ayub Abd Ghani, who was allegedly detained for a drug offence.
The offence was allegedly committed at the Sandakan police station between 10am and 11am on Jan 17 last year.
Yugeswaran was also charged with accepting RM2,000 from Abdul Ghani, to be given to a deputy public prosecutor, to close the case involving Ayub, between 5pm and 5.20pm on Jan 21, 2016.
The police officer was alleged to have accepted the money at a car park in front of Restoran Habbeb Chicken Rice, Bandar Maju Sandakan.
He was charged under Section 17(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act and faces an imprisonment for up to 20 years and fine of not less than five times the value of the bribe involved, or RM10,000, whichever is higher, if convicted.
Ummu Kalthom set bail at RM10,000 with deposit of RM6,000 in one surety and also ordered Yugeswaran to surrender his passport to the court.
She also set April 27 for case management.
Deputy public prosecutor from MACC, Awang Samsul Baharam Bungso, prosecuted, while Yugeswaran was represented by lawyer Ram Singh. — Bernama