IGP: AmBank founder’s assassin arrested

Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said that the suspect, Sei Ngan Chai, was arrested with two others in Taiping early this morning.
UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR: The police have arrested the man suspected of gunning down AmBank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi back in July.

The shooter, identified as Sei Ngan Chai, was arrested early this morning at a housing area in Taiping at 12.30am.

“We tracked down the suspect in Taiping and have arrested him, along with two others whom we believe helped protect him,” Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar said at a press conference at the Kuala Lumpur police headquarters.

“He has been brought to Kuala Lumpur. After this, we will try to track down the weapon used to kill Hussain,” said the top cop, adding that he believed Sei had been on the run since Hussain’s murder.

Two Chinese men, 31 and 26, suspected to be Sei’s accomplices, will be investigated under Section 212 of the Penal Code, for harbouring a criminal offender.

Hussain, 75, was gunned down in cold blood on July 29 at a cark park in Jalan Ceylon, amid a surge in shooting crimes that had the nation reeling in fear for the past few months.

The septuagenarian sustained two shots in the chest while his wife, who was by his side, was hit in the left hand.

Crime index down

On another note, Khalid assured the public that that the nation’s crime index had dropped by 7.34% since launch of the police crackdown on crime from Aug 17, dubbed Ops Cantas.

“All crimes nationwide – with the exception of rape, extortion and threats, which have increased – have gone down since Ops Cantas was launched,” he said.

The police suspect that the rate of threats and extortion had increased only because the public had become bolder in lodging police reports.

“From Aug 17 up to yesterday, we have arrested 11,036 individuals for a variety of offences. Out of the total 4,704 are Malays, 1,374 Chinese, 2,845 Indians and 1,223 others,” said Khalid, adding that the number of individuals screened was 20 times that amount.

The police had also seized 23 firearms, 14 handmade air rifles, 1,238 bullets, a hand grenade and an assortment of weapons such as parangs and knives within the same period, he said.

Meanwhile, Khalid said police arrested 304 gang members under the Societies Act 1966 since Ops Cantas was launched, and opened 236 investigation papers.

“We will investigate them under the Societies Act 1996 for being members of an unregistered society. Sixty of them are from Gang 04, 110 from Gang 08, 12 from Gang 18, 60 from Gang 36, while the remainder are from various other gangs.”

Khalid vowed that the police would continue to hunt down and arrest gang members in the country.