INVESTIGATIONS into the death of former political aide Teoh Beng Hock picked up steam again last week although three previous police task forces found no criminal elements in the case.

Federal Criminal Investigation Department director Huzir Mohamed said today police have recorded the statements of seven people last week, adding two were new witnesses while the other five were questioned previously.

“We have questioned seven witnesses last week. We have identified 14 others who will be called up soon,” he told reporters at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman today.

“This will include anti-graft officers and former co-workers and friends of the deceased.

“On our side, we have established three task forces before.

“One was led by Rusdi Mat Isa, who is now the Kuala Lumpur CID chief, Amar Singh who has retired and Manoharan who has also retired.”

Huzir said all three task forces found no criminal elements into the death of Teoh and the findings were submitted to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

He said the AGC gave returned the files with “NFA” (no further action).

Teoh, who was an aide to then Selangor exco member Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead on the 5th floor of Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, hours after he was interrogated by officers from the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in their office on the 14th floor of the same building.

A Royal Commission of Inquiry concluded that Teoh was driven to suicide by the aggressive interrogation methods used by anti-graft officers.

Last week, Selangor police chief Noor Azam Jamaluddin said police have recorded statements from five individuals, including from Ean Yong, who is now the Seri Kembangan assemblyman.

He added that police also recorded the statement from former Kota Alam Shah assemblyman M. Manoharan.

In July, Attorney-General Tommy Thomas said there is insufficient evidence for a homicide charge in Teoh’s case but ordered the case to be reopened and probed for wrongful confinement under Section 542 of the Penal Code.

Lawyer for Teoh’s family, Ramkarpal Singh, was unhappy with the reclassification and urged Thomas to explain why the case is now under investigation for wrongful confinement despite elements of homicide in Teoh’s death while in custody of MACC officers. – November 20, 2019.