PUTRAJAYA: The Wang Kelian Royal Commission Inquiry was told that the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) had video evidence showing a senior police officer taking money from a human trafficking syndicate.
Farrah Naz Karim, the 23rd witness of the public inquiry, however said she did not personally view the video.
“I was informed of the video, but I could not verify because I do not have access to it.”
Farrah then suggested to the panel to get the video from the EAIC.
She said EAIC had called her and reporter Aliza Shah Muhammad Shah to have their statement recorded after a series of reports on the Wang Kelian issue.
“I received an email from the EAIC. They asked us to be present to facilitate the investigation.
“I went there with the then NST executive editor, Muzli Mohd Zin.
“We sat in front of the four-member panel for two hours.
“At the end of it, they told me that they had enough grounds to start the investigation (on Wang Kelian).
“Later, I was informed that the EAIC chairman paid a courtesy call to the (then) inspector-general of police (Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun) and senior management of the police.
“The EAIC chairman had briefed Fuzi and senior management of the police on what we had discussed earlier.
“I felt betrayed when I found out the EAIC chairman had ordered to drop the case.
“I was puzzled as EAIC was supposed to look into the case. I also heard that EAIC had videos that show the head of a particular OCPD taking money from the human trafficking syndicate.”
Arifin (RCI chairman): Who received the money?
Farrah Naz: We were told that EAIC had been looking into issues at the (Malaysia-Thai) border for quite sometime, and they had secured some evidence and CCTV clippings of a particular senior police officer receiving money.
Some members of the EAIC were unhappy (with the decision to drop the case) and they eventually quit the commission.
Earlier, Farrah told the panel she had “stopped” her investigation after receiving a written answer from the IGP office days after the Dec 20, 2017 report.
“I tried to get the IGP and deputy IGP to respond for my follow-up, but they were non-committal. “On Dec 21, I called (Tan Sri) Fuzi at noon, and we had a 30 minute chat, but he also did not answer my question.
“He told me that he couldn’t comment much because (Tan Sri) Khalid was his former boss.
“He then asked me to call him back in the evening.
“In the evening, when I was about to make the call, I was informed that the IGP would not entertain me and my colleague, and asked to wait for further response,” she added.
Farrah said she then received a call from her superior on Dec 24 telling her the IGP’s office had sent in the answer.
“I received the instruction not to present the story in any other way, but in verbatim and required not to do a follow-up after that.
“Hence, the story was not highlighted and it ended there.”
Farrah said she had instructed Aliza to “ambush” Khalid at a bowling event, after messages sent to him went unanswered.
“He read those messages, but did not reply to any.
“Aliza went to meet Khalid, and later briefed me on what had transpired.
“Following that, we continued to dig for more information and made calls.”
Farrah said she then received another document, with a note, telling her why the IGP had lied to them.
“The document suggested another cover-up and withholding of information.”
Farrah said together with Aliza, she then went to meet the then home minister, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in Parliament.
“We sat down with him because of the seriousness of the allegations, along with the dummy of the report.
“We wanted to get his verification. He then told us to go ahead (with the report) and hoped that the truth would prevail.”
She added that, in total, she had received one call from an unknown caller and two envelops from unknown sources that disclosed information on the case.