Seeking justice: Ng (left) meeting up with Heng who had organised a press conference regarding the extortion allegation.
JOHOR BARU: Another allegation of policemen extorting money from travellers at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine here has surfaced.
This time, the incident involved a 50-year-old Malaysian, who has been travelling across the Causeway on a daily basis for the past 12 years.
The victim, who wanted to be known only as Ng, claimed that the incident occurred on Jan 4 at around 8.40pm as he made his way back home through BSI.
“I was stopped by two plain-clothes men who identified themselves as policemen. They showed me their authority cards and instructed me to hand over my mobile phone and passport to them for inspection.
“They said there were pornographic materials inside my phone, which I denied, and escorted me to a room for interrogation.
“Once inside the room, one of the men told me that I had two options, which was they would take me to the Larkin police station or I could pay them RM1,000 to settle the case,” he said.
Ng, who is a factory operator in Singapore, said this at a press conference organised by Johor MCA Youth chief Heng Zhi Li after lodging a report at the Johor Baru Selatan police headquarters here yesterday.
Ng added that he only had RM200 in cash at the time but the men told him that the amount was not enough as there were eight other policemen in the team.
“They then took me to an ATM located inside BSI near the KTM ticketing counter to withdraw the amount needed to pay them, which I did.
“After withdrawing the amount, they brought me to a public toilet where one of them stood outside to guard the door while the other one followed me inside.
“The man then told me to go into one of the cubicles while he entered the one next to me. His hand then appeared on top of the cubicle telling me to hand over the money,” he claimed.
Ng said once he handed over the amount, the men then returned his passport and mobile phone and he immediately left BSI to go home.
Meanwhile, Heng said the matter was quite concerning as this was the second allegation of policemen extorting money from travellers at BSI.
“There must be serious action taken by the police to address this matter as BSI is an important gateway for people, locals and foreigners, to come into Johor.
“If there is no proper action, then it could damage Johor in the long run,” he said, adding that those who face similar problems should immediately lodge a report with the police.
When contacted, Johor Baru Selatan acting OCPD Supt Lim Jit Huey confirmed receiving the report lodged by the victim and said that investigation is ongoing.
Earlier this month, two policemen were arrested for trying to extort RM2,000 from a local man at BSI.
