KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today
Khalid said the police are aware of the allegation made on a Facebook page linked to Muhammad Azri.
“A [report] has been lodged and we will investigate,” he told Malay Mail Online via text message.
Yesterday, a screen capture of a purported WhatsApp conversation was posted on the Facebook page, Papagomo Original, alluding to an attempt to solicit a bribe to “settle” a sedition probe on Muhammad Azri for allegedly stirring racial sentiments in connection to the Low Yat incident.
The screen capture purportedly showed a chat believed to be between Muhammad Azri and one KBAB51 - which is Khalid’s Twitter handle - in which the latter had asked for “around 20k only” to settle the “problem”.
To date, a total of 24 people, including Papagomo, have been arrested over the riot that saw five people injured including three journalists from Chinese media organisations.
The riot started after a 22-year-old Malay man was handed over on Saturday to the police for allegedly stealing an RM800 phone from a store at the popular tech mall.
Rumours swirled on social media after the alleged theft that the Chinese trader had sold the Malay man a counterfeit phone, leading to calls to boycott the “cheating” Chinese traders and the complex itself.