(Suara Keadilan) Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar has confirmed that they have siezed Teoh Beng Hock’s mobile phone from an MACC investigating officer, supporting ongoing speculation that the DAP aide who plunged to death last week did not jump but may have been ejected or pushed out.
Khalid also said the recently completed post-mortem showed Teoh died between four and five hours before his body was found at 1.30pm last Thursday.
“If we follow the initial report of the doctor, about four to five hours before the body was found,” he told reporters on Monday.
This means death occurred between 8.30 and 9.30am and most likely in the presence of MACC officials.
There have been news reports suggesting that Beng Hock’s interrogation was due to have resumed at 8am Thursday.
Beng Hock, who came to the MACC Shah Alam office at 5pm on Wednesday, underwent a marathon questioning session. The graft-buster said he was released at 3.45am Thursday.
Amid pressure, details emerge. But will the truth be allowed to surface.
According to MACC investigations division director Shukri Abdull, Beng Hock was free to go home but he chose to stay and catch a nap on a settee in the office.
Said Shukri: “The man was asked to come to Selangor MACC last night at 5pm for his statement to be recorded and this procedure was completed at 3.45am.
“At 3.45am, he was allowed to leave, he promised to come today to bring some documents to assist in the investigations. At 6am, he was still seen to be sleeping at the couch but we didn’t see him until 1.30pm today when the body was found.”
Asked Lim Guan Eng, DAP secretary general: “The MACC office is not a six-star hotel, if you are allowed to go home, you would go home. There is no spa, no sauna. Why would you want to stay there?”
The discovery of Beng Hock’s handphone, which no one had owned up to holding last week, supports Guan Eng’s doubts.
Close-circuit TV also showed Beng Hock entering the building but not leaving. Amid pressure from Beng Hock’s family and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, more ‘acceptable’ details are now being revealed.
The police had initially said there were no signs of foul play and there were also suggestions that he had jumped from the un-occupied 9th floor of the building – implying that his death had nothing to do with the MACC office.
In fact, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz actually said it was not the graft-buster’s fault that Beng Hock had jumped.
Fall was from 14th floor
Latest checks have debunked many of the earlier postulations. Khalid has admitted it was now “highly possible” that Beng Hock fell from the 14th floor.
“We were checking the 14th floor window because we found components of a window on the 5th floor (where Beng Hock’s body was discovered). We will take a closer look at the window. We suspect it is the window handle,” Khalid said.
He declined to give further details but said so far, 33 statements, including from 22 MACC officers, Beng Hock’s boss Ean Yong and lawyer M Manoharan have been taken.
He also said the police were now going through the call records in Beng Hock’s mobile phone.
Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan has said about 60 percent of investigations have been completed.
Meanwhile, Khalid attacked Kajang municipal councillor Tan Boon Wah for refusing to give the police his statement, saying that he risked facing charges for lodging a false report if he did not co-operate.
Tan – who also underwent interrogation around the same time as Beng Hock – had told a press conference on Friday that the MACC tortured him in a bid to force false confessions against Seri Kembangan assemblyman Ean Yong.
Ean is Beng Hock’s boss. Tan also complained that MACC officers threw racial slurs at him.
“I advise him to present himself to the police station to give a statement on the report he made. If not, we will have to issue a notice under Section 11 of the Penal Code to order him to give a statement at the station,” said Khalid.
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