SEREMBAN: “No money, no problem. We can take onions instead.”
Even with the recent rise in price of onions, it was not what a lorry attendant expected to hear from a policeman.
He was out delivering sacks of the bulb on Sunday when a crooked cop allegedly demanded kickbacks from him for purportedly breaching the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in Senawang here.
The 26-year-old attendant had left Shah Alam in a lorry loaded with onions when he was flagged down at a police checkpoint at the Senawang toll plaza of the North-South Expressway at about 2pm.
It is learnt that when the attendant could not produce the necessary CMCO inter-state travel documents, a policeman told him he could be arrested and fined.
The cop allegedly offered to let him off the hook for RM200.
Sources said when the attendant told him that he had no cash on him, the policeman allegedly demanded 10 sacks of onions which were to be distributed to each cop at the checkpoint.
It is learnt that the attendant explained that he had lost his job in March due to the pandemic and was forced to take up odd-jobs to make ends meet.
He told the cop that 10 bags of onions at RM50 each would cause him to lose half his salary for the month.
On hearing this, the policeman relented and allegedly told the attendant to hand over just two sacks of the bulbs.
Feeling victimised, the lorry attendant lodged a police report on returning to Shah Alam yesterday.
Seremban police chief ACP Mohd Said Ibrahim said yesterday that a probe was initiated soon after the report was lodged and a policeman was arrested in Senawang yesterday.
“The complainant was held as he could not produce his employer’s letter to enable him to travel during the CMCO. Payment was demanded of him which was substituted with the onions he was carrying in the lorry. We will carry out a thorough investigation and will take appropriate action.” he said.
