SHAH ALAM, Jan 23 — Three police officers were charged in the Sessions Court here today with corruption, involving a total of RM22,500 in gratification as an inducement for them to release three foreign women who were in police custody last year.
However, all of them — N. Ramesh, 52, Mohamad Syafiq Solah, 29, and Muizzudin Muhammad, 32 — pleaded not guilty to the charges that were read out to them before judge Rozilah Salleh.
Ramesh faced four charges, with the first two for accepting gratification of RM9,000 and RM1,500, respectively from one C. Kumar, 43, as an inducement for him to release the three foreign nationals who were detained by the police.
Both the offences were allegedly committed at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters on May 28 last year.
Ramesh, who is now with the Batu Gajah district police headquarters, was also jointly charged with Mohamad Syafiq with accepting gratification of RM3,000 from Kumar, also for the same purpose, at about 10pm at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters on May 30 last year.
They were also charged with accepting gratification of RM4,000 from Kumar for the same purpose at about 5pm on June 4 last year at the same place.
As for Mohamad Syafiq, he was also charged with accepting gratification of RM3,000 for himself from Kumar for the same purpose and at the same location at about 1.30pm on June 3 last year.
Mohamad Syafiq is also jointly charged with Muizzudin with accepting RM2,000 as gratification from Kumar, also for the release of the three foreign nationals at about 10pm on May 30 last year at the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters.
Rozilah allowed them bail of RM3,000 on each count and also ordered them to surrender their passports to the court. She also set March 6 for mention.
Lawyer Azrul Zulkifli Stork represented Ramesh, while Mohamad Syafiq and Muizzudin were represented by lawyer Ridha Abdah Subri.
The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohamad Suffian Ja’far and Prosecuting Officer Mohd Fadzley Abdul Jalil. — Bernama
