Death threat for MyWatch chief

MyWatch chairman R Sri Sanjeevan received a threatening call from an unknown person yesterday.

PETALING JAYA: The chairman of anti-crime watchdog MyWatch allegedly received a death threat yesterday, but has brushed it off as something that comes with the territory.

R Sri Sanjeevan told FMT he received a call from a private number and a rough voice spoke to him, saying: “You bastard. You watch out. We are going to shoot you down tonight. You are stepping on too many toes.”

But Sanjeevan said he was not rattled by the threat. He said: “I just replied him ‘I would be at PJ Hilton tonight. You can come and look for me.’ But he just hung up.”

He said that such calls were not something new to him, having received at least two other similar calls a few years back when he had highlighted cases of police abusing suspects. He was then the public complaints bureau head of the NGO Astivaaram Foundation.

“So this was very much anticipated. Seems like it always happens to me whenever I talk about the police,” he said.

When asked if he had any idea who would do this, Sanjeevan refused to speculate, but said: “I don’t know who they are. But it must be one of the people who are offended with all the revelations by MyWatch recently.”

He added that he will not be lodging a police report because he was quite certain the police would not act.

“I have no confidence in them of doing anything about this and I base this on my experience lodging a report in 2010 about a threat too.”

Sanjeevan said that speaking to the media was sufficient on this matter.

“At the end of the day it is still information and intelligence for them when it comes out in the press. The police can still act and investigate but they would usually excuse themselves by asking for a formal report before doing any work,” he said.

Sanjeevan vowed that the NGO he leads will continue with their work to assist in reducing crime and expose wrongdoings of the police.

Cases of power abuse
In the past few weeks, MyWatch, or The Malaysian Crime Watch Task Force, has risen to prominence after its patron, former inspector-general of police Musa Hassan made public several serious allegations in a few press conferences and interviews.

Chief among those issues he highlighted were that politicians have been interfering with police work and that criminal elements have infiltrated the police force.

Musa had also pointed out that there may have been cases of abuse of power at the top level when several senior policemen were transferred out for refusing to approve an “unsound” walkie-talkie project.

He also labelled his successor, current IGP Ismail Omar a ‘Yes man’ and had urged the latter to be tough in light of these issues.

MyWatch had more recently claimed that it has in its possession evidence that top police officers were involved in criminal activities, including officers that were involved in money laundering, illegal gambling, prostitution, football bookies and have direct links with underworld figures and kingpins.

MyWatch claimed that there was also a case where a top police officer was given an “all-expense paid trip overseas to play golf with an underworld kingpin” as well as one where “one senior police official’s son and daughter is working for a kingpin with special priviledges”

On Sunday, MyWatch alleged that a police officer with a rank of deputy commissioner [DCP] appointed by Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as his special liaison officer was ‘more powerful’ than Ismail himself.