SHAH ALAM: Fourteen individuals, including three women, are on remand for five days starting Wednesday (April 16) to assist in an investigation for allegedly submitting false birth registration forms to the National Registration Department (NRD).
The remand order against the suspects, aged between 28 and 49, was issued by Magistrate Ameera Mastura Khamis following an application from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
According to a source, all the suspects are alleged to have applied for identity cards and birth certificates from NRD using forged documents.
They were arrested between 12.30pm and 6.30pm on Tuesday (April 15) at the Selangor MACC Office.
Meanwhile, Selangor MACC director Hairuzam Mohmad Amin@Hamim, when contacted, confirmed the matter.
On March 13 the media reported that the MACC arrested 16 individuals, including a civil servant, a medical practitioner with the title Datuk Seri, a legal practitioner, as well as several agents and birth registration applicants.
The individuals, aged 20 to 70, were arrested between 11am and 8pm in Ops Outlander and Ops Birth, conducted across the Klang Valley and Johor.
The suspects are believed to have committed the offences between 2013 and 2018, and from 2023 to 2025, by accepting and offering bribes, as well as submitting false birth certification documents.
On March 13, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail revealed at a press conference on Thursday that authorities had uncovered a syndicate that submitted forged birth documents to deceive the National Registration Department (NRD) into issuing legitimate birth certificates, which were then sold on the black market.
He said the syndicate’s modus operandi involved individuals posing as birth informants and submitting fake birth documents resembling official verification from registered private healthcare facilities.
These birth certificates were believed to have been sold to parents or guardians of children without identification documents or Malaysian citizenship, he added.
Saifuddin Nasution said the syndicate was believed to have been operating for more than three years and had obtained over 80 birth certificates through this method.
The syndicate is also suspected of having international connections and being involved in trafficking undocumented children from abroad.
