FORMER Felda chairman Isa Samad will be called up by police to assist investigations into a land deal involving the agency’s property in Kuala Lumpur, Astro Awani reports.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said Isa’s statement was critical to the police investigation into whether there are elements of fraud in the RM270 million deal, the portal said. 

Isa was part of Felda’s top management when the alleged transfer occurred in 2014, he said, adding that they will likely call him next week.

“We will be ready to get all the statement done by next week,” he said when asked on Isa.

He added that he has also instructed for complainant’s statement to be recorded within the next two days.

“Because he is too busy, we have yet to record his statement. But we will when he returns to Malaysia. I have instructed for his statement to be recorded either tomorrow or the day after,” said Rashid.

Rashid said that police are investigating the case under cheating and falsifying of documents.

“We have gone through a report which was lodged on December 12 by a senior Felda official, and we found some basis to launch an investigation into the case(land deal),” he said.

He added that police have so far recorded statements from few witnesses in connection to the case.

“We have recorded statements from officials from Felda, the Land Office, as well as the Registrar of Companies. We have also obtained some documents on the company involved in this case,” he said.

As for the length of investigation, Rashid said it may take a while to complete it.

“It’s based on case progress and the analysis that we do. It will take some time,” he said.

It was exposed last week that four parcels of Felda land, estimated to be worth RM1 billion, had been transferred to a private company under suspicious circumstances.

According to reports, Synergy Promenade Sdn Bhd, the developer of KLVC, is said to have paid Felda only RM270 million for the land.

Felda chairman Shahrir Samad said it had lodged a police report over the land transfer, and was seeking to regain the land.

The controversial land transfer took place during former chairman Isa Samad’s tenure.

The former Negri Sembilan menteri besar, who is being investigated in several graft cases involving Felda, has not answered queries on the transfer.

A former aide to Isa, Zahid Mat Arip, told The Malaysian Insight that the latest Felda scandal was being used to divert attention from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB). – December 27, 2017.