Cops: Missing PI could have left the country
Private investigator P Balasubramaniam who went missing with his family after making headlines could be overseas.
Private investigator P Balasubramaniam who went missing with his family after making headlines could be overseas.
Federal CID director Mohd Bakri Zinin said the police are not ruling out this possibility.
He said Bukit Aman had contacted Interpol, besides monitoring Malaysia's entry and exit points to trace Balasubramaniam.
"We are still searching for him and want to take a statement from him on the statutory declarations he made recently," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Balasubramaniam, a former Special Branch detective, had on July 1 signed a statutory declaration (SD) linking Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak with the murdered Mongolian interpreter Altantunya Shaariibuu.
He had revealed the contents of the declaration at a press conference held at opposition party PKR’s headquarters last Thursday in the presence of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.
The private eye, however, retracted the SD in another sworn statement the next day.
Following this, his nephew, R Kumaresan, filed a police report stating that Balasubramaniam and his family have gone missing.
In a latest development, Kumaresan said that his uncle had called him last night to tell him that he was "okay".
He said that Balasubramaniam called his mobile phone using an unidentifiable number at 11.30pm. In the short conversation which lasted a few minutes, Kumaresan also spoke to his aunt.
Meanwhile, Mohd Bakri said at the moment police were getting statements from individuals who last met Balasubramaniam.
He said police had no intention of putting unnecessary pressure on Balasubramaniam but only to expedite the investigations.
"And we assure him that we will give him protection, just like we have done for Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the former aide of the PKR leader. (Mohd Saiful had recently filed a police report claiming that Anwar had sodomised him).
"If he is scared, he can come with his lawyer, and if he asks for safety guarantee, we will fully cooperate with him by giving him security protection," he said.
On the claim by Balasubramaniam's nephew that someone might be hiding him, Mohd Bakri declined to comment other than saying that police would not act on assumptions.
Sodomy probe
As for the investigations into the sodomy allegation involving Anwar, he said police had recorded statements from 18 witnesses, including the doctors who had examined Mohd Saiful, and more individuals were expected to be called to have their statements taken.
Asked whether police would call Anwar for the same purpose, Mohd Bakri said: "We have to first record the statements from witnesses... we'll see, we'll study and then we will do the same (for Anwar)."
The CID chief is also asking other individuals involved to come forward with information without police having to go after them as provided for under Section 111 of the Penal Code.
Anwar has since denied the allegation and instead accused his political rivals of authoring a conspiracy to thwart the opposition from coming into power. Government leaders have denied this.
Humanitarian grounds
In a related development, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said the Turkish embassy in Kuala Lumpur gave refuge for Anwar last week based on humanitarian grounds.
He also emphasised that Anwar stayed at the ambassador's house and not at the embassy, as reported by several news organisations.
"There was no political aspect to it. It was 100 percent based on humanitarian aspects. The issue has been settled, it is behind us now," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Eight Developing Islamic Countries (D-8) Summit here.
He revealed that Anwar "actually" applied to the embassy for protection as the opposition leader was concerned about his personal safety.
"Our ambassador here opened his house to him (Anwar), he stayed at the house for 26 hours and not (at) our embassy. When he (Anwar) felt comfortable, he decided to leave the house on his own," he added.
On June 30, Anwar caused a stir when he sought refuge in the Turkish embassy at Jalan Ampang here, claiming he had received death threats in the wake of the sodomy allegation.
He left the ambassador's residence on Monday.
