KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Selangor Fire and Rescue Department director Azmi Osman said his investigators did not conclude or even suggest that an exploding cellphone killed Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd CEO Nazrin Hassan as alleged.
Azmi told Malay Mail that investigators are still awaiting results from the electronics testing laboratory, which will take another one to two weeks at the very least.
“The statement that the cause of fire was from a exploding handphone that was charged next to him was made by the family, not us. It is still premature to establish anything yet.
“So far we are yet to rule out any other elements till the lab results are out,” he said.
When asked if police were involved in the investigations at this point, Azmi said no.
“We will only seek police assistance if we find anything suspicious,” he explained.
According to Azmin, investigators have taken all the necessary evidence from the scene including two mobile phones as well as prepared reports of the fire pattern for lab submissions and further analysis.
“Please wait, let’s not speculate anything yet. But to clear the air we did not say the cause was from a handphone explosion. Give us time to investigate,” he stressed.
Last week, Cradle issued a statement asserting that Nazrin died from blast injuries attributed to an exploding handphone that was being charged next to him.
The statement came after a message allegedly from a family member containing the same claim.
However, the purported message included other unverified details, such as that Nazrin’s device overheated and exploded, causing blunt trauma to the back of Nazrin’s head, and killing him.
The message also alleged that Nazrin was dead before the bed he had been lying on caught fire, partially burning his body.
According to results of the preliminary investigation, Nazrin was in a bedroom fire at his double-storey terrace house in Mutiara Damansara and likely died of smoke inhalation.
Police have said he suffered burns on 30 per cent of his body.
Cradle is a firm under the Finance Ministry, which oversees the development of tech entrepreneurs and the Malaysian start-up ecosystem.
It was the agency that provided seed funding to firms such as ride-hailing provider Grab (previously MyTeksi) and fintech start-up iMoney.
The incident took place on June 14, a day before the Hari Raya celebrations.
Nazrin was 45, and left behind a wife and four children including a son from a previous marriage.
