Is Khalid protecting someone over ‘no CBT’ claim in Mara deal, asks DAP

IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar today dismissed any criminal investigations against Mara officials and had passed the buck completely to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission over the purchase of a Melbourne property. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, June 29, 2015.

DAP today slammed the inspector-general of police (IGP) for clearing the Majlis Amanah Rakyat's (Mara) overpriced Melbourne property purchase of criminal breach of trust (CBT) without any investigations done and questioned if the police were trying to protect someone.

DAP national publicity chief Tony Pua said IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had been "double quick" in dismissing any criminal investigations against Mara officials and had passed the buck completely to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

But Pua said Section 405 of the Penal Code specifically stated that “whoever, being in any manner entrusted with property… dishonestly misappropriates, or converts to his own use, that property… commits criminal breach of trust”.

"Clearly, in this case, there is a prima facie case of Mara top officials 'dishonestly appropriating the money' when they were entrusted to invest funds allocated to Mara by the government.

"The misappropriation was carried out via the inflation of the price to acquire a property, Dudley International House in Melbourne," Pua, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said in a statement today.

He said IGP had closed the case even before investigations commenced, despite the vendors of the property admitting in a sworn testimony that they had inflated the price of the property.

Pua said The Malaysian Insider's report today that Australian paper which broke news of the scandal, The Age, had in its possession, "false invoices" to prove that a bribe was indeed paid.

"This paperwork can all be provided to Malaysian authorities.

"It is already in the hands of the Australian federal police," Nick McKenzie, journalist from The Age had said in the report.

Pua said Malaysians should now ask why Bukit Aman was trying to wash its hands off the case, pretending there was no crime committed under its jurisdiction.

"Perhaps more importantly, who are they trying to protect?”

- TMI