KUALA LUMPUR: Six policemen led by an inspector have been arrested after they extorted RM150,000 from a group of Chinese nationals allegedly involved in a scam operation.
The policemen — an inspector, a sergeant, three corporals and a constable — were arrested last Thursday. They were taken to the Petaling Jaya magistrate's court where a three-day remand order was issued.
The suspects, all attached to the Serdang police headquarters, had found out about the scam operation and three of them raided a house in Jalan Bluconstellation near the Mines Resort City in Seri Kembangan on Jan 30.
There, they confronted seven Chinese nationals at the house and demanded RM150,000 from them. Fearing arrest, the victims contacted their agent and asked for RM100,000 to pay off the policemen.
After handing over the money to the policemen, the victims were told that they needed to settle the balance within a few days. The agent was forced to fork out another RM30,000 and the money was allegedly given to an officer from the Serdang police Commercial Crime Investigation Department on Feb 1.
Sources said one of the policemen, however, was not satisfied with the RM130,000 and bugged the agent for the remaining RM20,000.
It is learnt that the policemen harassed the agent and bombarded him with WhatsApp messages daily for the money.
However, the agent had by then run out of cash.
The policemen then decided to pay another visit to the victims and threatened to arrest them.
They intimidated the victims before asking them to get in touch with their agent.
However, they eventually left the house after realising that the victims had nothing to give them.
One of the cops contacted the agent again on Feb 17 and Feb 20, but the latter was in Thailand and did not entertain the policeman's messages.
The 57-year-old man lodged a report on March 9 and all the suspects were arrested on the same day. Police also raided their houses and seized their handphones.
Police have classified the case as extortion under Section 384 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum 10 years' jail, a fine or whipping upon conviction.
Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan confirmed the arrests and said the suspects had been remanded until tomorrow.
He said police were investigating if the Chinese nationals were involved in illegal activities, including running a scam operation.