Probe into cops who leaked details on Tahfiz fire suspects
Published on: Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian police recorded statements from 13 police officers to facilitate an investigation into leaked information on the arrest of seven suspects in connection with a fire at a religious school last week that killed 23 people.The information leaked included facts of the case and several photographs of the suspects which were in circulation in the social media before an 8pm press conference by the city police chief on Saturday.The New Straits Times on Monday quoted the inspector-general of police as saying a police task force will investigate the leak.
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"I have ordered the city police to form a task force to investigate this matter and identify individuals who had leaked the confidential information linked to the case."If we find that police officers are involved, we will take action not only on the department level, but also based on criminal offence," Tan Sri Mohamad Fuzi Harun was quoted as saying.Kuala Lumpur CID chief Rusdi Md Isa said the matter was being investigated under Section 203A of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act."However, no arrests have been made over the information leakage," he said.
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The early morning fire last Thursday at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah religious school in Kuala Lumpur claimed the lives of 21 students and two teachers.The police had detained seven youths aged between 11 and 18. Six of them had tested positive for drugs and are being remanded for a week until Sept 22.
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Meanwhile, the seven suspects involved attended school at one time, said Education Minister Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid.The suspects aged 11-18 year-old were reportedly expelled from school due to disciplinary problems."The suspects did not attend school for a large number of days. Based on this, disciplinary action was taken by the school," he said."Teachers had taken measures to persuade the suspects to attend school. However, after coming to school for a few days, they started missing school again."For example, the 16-year-old suspect only attended school when he was in Form One in 2012. Most of them only attended school in the early stage of their secondary form. The last one to drop out of school was in 2016. "Mahdzir said the reason they were considered as dropouts was because they did not attend school for an extended period of time. Total number of years of schooling among them was one to five years.It was known that three suspects formerly attended SMK Sri Ampang, two from SMK Padang Tembak and remaining two was from SK Dato' Keramat 1 and SK Dato' Keramat 2 respectively.However, the 18-year-old suspect managed to finish school and furthered his studies at Giat Mara. But he reportedly left the learning skills centre.On Sept 16, Kuala Lumpur police arrested the seven teenagers in relation to Kampung Datuk Keramat tahfiz fire due to a verbal spat between the tahfiz school pupils and the teenagers.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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