A man turned to faking an illness to avoid an alleged extortion by two police officers at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) in Johor Bahru (JB).
This bizarre turn of events was revealed to the public during a press conference held at MCA’s Johor headquarters last Friday (Apr 5).
Was returning from work in S’pore
Speaking to reporters at the press conference, the 29-year-old man who wanted to be known as Lim, said he was travelling back from Singapore after work on Apr 2.
After getting through the security clearance, Lim said he was approached by two men dressed in plain clothes and claimed to be police officers.
They took away my phone and passport and instructed me to follow them. They brought me to a premise inside BSI, which had the police emblem and tourism police logo, where it can only be entered using an access card,” he said as quoted by The Star.
Lim claimed he was held inside a room for 30 minutes and was told by one of the officers that he was in “serious trouble” and would put him into a lockup before sending him to court the next day.
When Lim told them that he would lose his job of 10 years if he failed to show up at work and asked what offenses he had committed, the police officer allegedly ignored his question.
“One of the officers told me that I would be released if I paid them RM2,000. However, I didn’t have that amount at either my Malaysian or Singaporean bank account. I even showed them that I only had RM1,000 in total,” he said.
M’sian man fakes asthma attack to escape extortion
Lim added that the police officers then took him to an ATM at a nearby petrol station via a motorcycle to withdraw the money.
However, he was unable to do so and was taken to another ATM machine, where he faced the same problem.
Lim was then taken to a bank at Taman Pelangi where he finally managed to withdraw the money for his “release”.
While on the way back to BSI, Lim said he told the officers to stop at a bus station and proceeded to fake an asthma attack.
Fortunately for him, a couple happened to pass by and immediately offered aid to Lim. One of the officers told the couple to help Lim as he needed to return to his station.
“He accidentally dropped my mobile phone and passport before leaving. I didn’t give the money to the policemen and have lodged a police report over the incident.”
Policemen remanded
Meanwhile, MCA Johor youth chief Heng Zhi Li, who was also present at the press conference, called upon the authorities to look into Lim’s allegations, saying that they were serious enough to “tarnish Malaysia’s image”.
The Star later reported that the two policemen aged 32 and 33 have been arrested and will be remanded until tomorrow (Apr 9) to aid ongoing investigations.
Johor Baru South district police chief Raub Selamat said this was an extension of their remand period, where it was supposed to end today after they were arrested on Apr 5.
Watch the press conference here:
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