‘IGP should head murder probe’

PKR's Tapah parliamentary seat candidate, K Vasantha Kumar wants Khalid Abu Bakar to head investigation into his political aide's murder during the 13th GE.

PETALING JAYA: Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar should head the police probe into the murder of political aide K Murugan during the 13th general election.

Tapah parliamentary seat candidate, K Vasantha Kumar, made this call in response to Bukit Aman public relation chief Ramli Yoosuf’s statement that investigations were already being pursued by the Perak state police.

“We had directed the Perak state police to contact the lawyer of the family and explain the status of the case,” Ramli told FMT.

“Under orders, the police will have to convey the stages of investigation to the family. I think they have already explained,” he added.

When contacted, Vasantha Kumar said he did not want the investigations to be conducted by state police, but by Bukit Aman itself.

“So far we have not received a call from Bukit Aman, but we believe the states have no power to investigate effectively,” he said.

“We had brought evidence to state level but there was no response from them, that’s why we had approached Bukit Aman,” he added.

Vasantha Kumar insisted that Murugan’s death was politically motivated, and reiterated his call for Khalid to intervene.

“That is why we had sent a memorandum to Khalid, only he can look into the investigations.”

Murugan, who was Vasantha Kumar’s aide, went missing on May 1. His remains were later discovered on May 5 in a pond in Bemban Industrial Park, Batu Gajah.

Last week, a group of 20 NGOs led by Vasantha Kumar handed over a memorandum addressed to Khalid, urging the police chief to immediately investigate into Murugan’s death.

They had demanded that the IGP form a special task force to investigate all political parties involved in the election campaign without fear and favour, and to investigate the records in Murugan’s mobile phone.

Vasantha Kumar had lodged six police reports throughout the campaign period on threats received by his assistants.

On April 28, a group of PKR campaigners were assaulted by B Kalaivanar, who heads a BN-friendly NGO.

Vasantha Kumar lost the Tapah parliamentary seat to MIC’s M Saravanan by 7,927 votes.