KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 ― Authorities must investigate if police received a RM12 million ransom as alleged by families of four Sarawakian hostages as well as claims that some of the money went missing, a DAP MP said today.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng said contradictory claims by government and police officials over the receipt of the money must be examined to determine how the money raised by the families and through public donation was handled.

“We will lodge a complaint of the RM12 million ransom allegedly handed by family members of four hostages to the Special Branch members. The IGP denied it… we want MACC to investigate whether the police have accepted the money,” Lim said outside the agency's office on Jalan Cochrane.

The MACC must also investigate a claim contained in a Manila Times report alleging that Malaysian and Philippine officials may have misappropriated over a quarter of the RM12 million, he added.

Kampung Tungku assemblyman Lau Weng San, who accompanied Lim here, said that they will also push MACC to investigate Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who confirmed the police's Special Branch receipt of the money.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar subsequently denied his agency ever received the funds, insisting it was handed over to a “third party” that his men then escorted to the Philippines.

Yesterday, an uncle to the now-freed hostage, who first revealed that the money was handed over to the police, insisted that the RM12 was deposited with the Special Branch and added that this could be verified by Hong Leong Bank.

The Manila Times yesterday quoted two “highly placed sources” in the Philippine government as saying that the Abu Sayyaf militants were angry that they only received 100 million pesos (RM8.8 million) instead of about 130 million pesos (RM12 million) that was reportedly raised by the hostages’ families to secure their release.

Abu Sayyaf gunmen had kidnapped the four Malaysians in Sabah waters on April 1 and subsequently freed them on June 8.

Their release triggered speculation that a ransom was paid to free them, although Malaysian authorities maintain that no ransom payment was made. Instead, Ahmad Zahid said the RM12 million was given to Filipino charity agencies.