Serdang cops nabbed for extortion

KUALA LUMPUR: Six personnel from the Serdang police station have been arrested for allegedly extorting from members of the public around The Mines and Balakong areas near here.

The officers with the ranks of Corporal, Lance Corparal and a constable were nabbed during a spot check by the Bukit Aman Integrity and Compliance Department (JIPS) after receiving complaints from members of the public.

The six officers were carrying out inspections at Jalan Besar, The Mines/Balakong when the JIPS team conducted an operation to monitor integrity compliance around 2pm on Wednesday.

Sources said one of the officers held up a food delivery rider for a very long time that it raised suspicions among the JIPS members.

"At 3.25pm, the JIPS team made inspections on all six officers and spoke to the food delivery rider, who appeared to be a victim of extortion.

"The victim told the JIPS team that he was held for riding motorcycle without licence and for using another food delivery rider's identity card," the source told Berita Harian today.

The police officer who held him took out handcuffs to threaten the victim and asked the victim on how he wished to resolve the matter.

"The officer also told the victim to wait while he discussed with his superior on how to settle the case.

"At first, the officer demanded the victim to give him RM700, but he agreed to RM500 after the victim told him that he only had that much," the source said.

The victim later identified another police officer who had also extorted from him because he was wearing a red-coloured face mask.

During the inspection, the JIPS team found RM900 in cash which the officers believed to have been extorted from the public.

Besides cash from the officers' pockets, the JIPS team also retrieved another RM500 (believed to be extorted from the food delivery rider) which was hidden at the backseat of a police patrol car.

The officers were also found to have been operating in the area beyond their assigned sector.

Urine test carried out on the officers found one of them tested positive for drugs.