Thursday, April 24, 2008

Alleged sexual molest: Cops to continue investigation - The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: April 24, 2008 By ANDREW SAGAYAM

Police will continue their investigations on a former Cabinet minister who allegedly molested a sales promoter at a five-star hotel in the city.

The former minister, a Datuk Seri in his late 50s, allegedly fondled a 32-year-old woman last Thursday.

However, on Wednesday, the woman withdrew her report through her lawyer, claiming that she had misunderstood” the incident.

City CID chief Senior Asst Comm II Ku Chin Wah, when contacted Thursday night, said it was the duty of the police to investigate the report and submit their findings to the Attorney-General's Chambers.

“It doesn’t matter if the woman gave a statutory declaration to retract her police report, our role is to probe the claims that she had made.

“After completing our probe, we will then hand over our findings to the AG's Chambers whose role is to decide if they want prosecute or not,” SAC II Ku said, adding that police had yet to record a statement from the senior politician.

It is learnt that the former minister had returned from an overseas trip on Thursday.

“We are investigating the case under Section 354 of the Penal Code for outrage of modesty and we will also interview witnesses there at the time of the alleged incident if necessary,” Ku said, adding that the police hoped to complete their probe soon.

The woman’s lawyer, Datuk Shafee Abdullah, said that the statutory declaration to withdraw the police report was handed over to the AG's Chambers and the police. In her report last Friday, the woman alleged that the former minister hugged her while she was at work at the cigar shop of the hotel located in KL Sentral.

The woman lodged a report at the Brickfields district police headquarters.

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