Two Perak state executive councillors are among six people arrested by the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) for alleged graft, involving a proposed housing project in Seri Iskandar worth RM 180mil. The two Exco members are Changkat Jering assemblyman Kapt (Rtd) Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (RIGHT), 57, and Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (LEFT)IPOH: Aug 21, 2008
Two Perak state executive councillors are among six people arrested by the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) for alleged graft, involving a proposed housing project in Seri Iskandar worth RM 180mil.
The two Exco members are Changkat Jering assemblyman Kapt (Rtd) Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu, 57, and Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, 52.
State Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director Samsiah Abu Bakar confirmed the arrests.
Osman and four others were picked up at a hotel in Ipoh on Tuesday at 5.40pm while Jamaluddin was detained later when he went to the ACA office here.
Osman and the other four others - a PKR member, who stood and lost in the last general elections, a businessman, a Perak Development Corporation technician and a Perak Tengah district councillor - have been ordered to be remanded for three days to facilitate ACA officers in their investigations.
“We recovered RM100,000 in cash from the men but before that they have apparently been receiving (money) many times,” Samsiah told reporters at her office here Tuesday.
“They are also suspected to be involved in asking for sexual favours," she said, although she later confirmed that neither Osman or Jamaluddin had solicited sexual favours.
The RM100,000, she added, was supposedly found inside a bag in the Osman’s possession.
Samsiah estimated that the group had received altogether over RM120,000 from a contractor of the project in Seri Iskandar, Perak Tengah.
Samsiah said the ACA was first alerted about the solicitation of payments by “a member of the public” last week.
Jamaluddin turned himself in at the state ACA office here at about 10am to give his statement. At press time, there is no word of him being remanded as he was still under 24-hour detention by the ACA.
He appeared at the lower courts but left with lawyer Mohd Azri Osman for the state ACA office 10 minutes later.
The former postman turned politician appeared to be in good spirits and even greeted and joked with the media.
At about noon Tuesday, the five arrested at the hotel were taken to the magistrate’s court here to be remanded.They arrived at the courts in separate vehicles at 11am.
Reporters and members of the public were kept guessing over the identities of the five handcuffed suspects because they either had jackets over their heads or hands covering their faces.
They were immediately whisked inside and remained in the courtroom for over an hour.
The handcuffed Osman, who appeared panic-stricken, was the first to emerge but this time with his face uncovered at 12.24pm.
Magistrate Noor Aini Yusof issued a three-day remand order against each of the five pending investigations under Section 11(a) of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.
State executive councillors Tai Sing Ng and Thomas Su Keong Siong and Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran were also present to lend moral support.
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