The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar is lucky that there is no Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry a decade ago or he would be the first IGP to be the subject of complaint of police misconduct for refusing to investigate as to why two elite policemen murdered in cold blood with C4 explosives a defenceless Mongolian woman, who they did not know or had never met before.
I am really astounded by the lame excuse Khalid has given for not launching a thorough and wide-ranging inquiry to ascertain why two police commandos Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the elite police squad, the Special Action Unit (UTK), tasked with protecting people’s lives, had murdered in cold blood defenceless Altantuya Shaariibuu now that their murder trial had ended with their conviction and death sentence.
Could it be that the No. 1 Policeman is just not interested in finding out why two members of the police elite corps, instead of upholding the law, became the most heinous law breakers, even abusing their special position in the police force to secure C4 explosives to do their dastardly deed, so that there could be no such recurrence?
I find any IGP who is indifferent as to the motive for the murderous deed by the two elite policeman most inexplicable and extraordinary, for it is tantamount to a serious dereliction of duty as the No. 1 policeman in the country.
If the IPCMC is in operation today, I have no doubt that complaints would have been lodged against him for gross police misconduct for not investigating or wanting to know what could be the motive for the cold-blooded murder using C4 explosives of defenceless Altantuya.
Yes, the courts did not establish the motive for the murder of Altantuya. I do not want here to go into the subject of why the motive for Altantuya’s murder was avoided like a plague, by both the prosecution, defence and the judiciary, but the fact is that both the murderers were elite policemen who had turned “rogue”. What made them turn “rogue” and what actions have the police taken to ensure that there can no such “rogue” recurrences like the Azila and Sirul cases in the elite police corps?
If Azila and Sirul were not policemen, let alone elite policemen, and if the courts for reasons of their own have decided on Altantuya’s murder case without addressing the subject of motive, Khalid may be right in pleading that it was not the police’s role to question the prosecutor or courts for not delving into the motive during the hearing process.
But Azila and Sirul were elite policemen, and it is a serious dereliction duty on Khalid’s part as IGP in not protecting the integrity of the police force by launching a full investigation as to how two elite policemen could be suborned, whether by money or other considerations, in betraying their oath of office as elite policemen.
I do not buy Khalid’s excuse that the Courts have exonerated the police of dereliction of duty in Altantunya’s murder by Azila and Sirul, for the courts had never done such a thing.
I challenge Khalid to quote chapter and verse from any one of the judicial decisions where the courts have absolved the police of dereliction of duty in Altantuya’s murder!
The jury is out on this issue, whether the police had been guilty of dereliction of duty in Altantuya’s murder, and the best forum for adjudicating it will be Parliamentary Committee on Altantuya Murder case which I proposed yesterday, to inquire into all unresolved public interest questions on the Altantunya case.
Khalid’s statement has strengthened the case for a full inquiry into the unresolved public interest questions on the Altantuya murder case, including whether there had been a dereliction of duty on the part of the police.
Neither the IGP nor the police should be the judge of this question.
Is the IGP prepared to submit the police to a full inquiry by a Parliamentary Committee on all unresolved public interest issues on the Altantuya Murder Case?