Messages to cops land politician's son in trouble

By V. Shankar Ganesh & Jassmine Shadiqe

The son of a murdered MIC politician is being investigated for criminal defamation after he accused police of protecting several suspects in the investigations into his father's murder.

Former Tenggaroh assemblyman Datuk S. Krishnasamy's son, Raj Kumar, had allegedly sent text messages and emails to police criticising their inability to solve the murder.

Raj Kumar's targets were Johor police chief Datuk Mokhtar Shariff and Johor Baru (south) Criminal Investigation Department chief Deputy Superintendent Nor Hisham Mohammad.

So far, three police reports have been lodged by Johor police against the engineer.

The latest report against Raj Kumar was lodged by Mokhtar on Oct 15 after he accused police of protecting several people allegedly involved in the murder.

The email was sent to the Johor police portal and addressed to Mokhtar.

Johor CID chief Datuk Amer Awal said police yesterday obtained an order to investigate from the public prosecutor and began investigations for criminal defamation.

They sent a team up north to Raj Kumar's office in Bayan Lepas, Penang, where they seized his laptop and handphone.

Amer said ever since Krishnasamy's murder, the family had been in constant contact with police for updates on the investigations.

They had questioned why police had released suspects who had been detained to facilitate investigations.

Amer said Krishnasamy's murder investigations were still ongoing and police had not closed the case.

Krishnasamy, who was state deputy MIC chairman, was gunned down at the party's office in Jalan Segget here by a man on Jan 11 last year.

The 61-year-old was shot as he entered a lift.

Meanwhile, Raj Kumar said he was questioned by police two days after Deepavali.

He said the reports against him alleged that he had defamed police.

He said he sent the text messages after failing to get a proper response from police over the investigations.

"All they kept telling me was that they were still investigating the case. It has been more than a year since my father was murdered."

He many suspects were arrested and released and to date, no one had been charged with his father's murder.

"I did not mean to insult the police. I was just pouring out my frustrations. Now action is being taken against me."

Raj said the family were the victims and they had been suffering without any closure to the case.