PUTRAJAYA: Police should continue with their investigations into the death of Teoh Beng Hock before further steps are taken by the Attorney General (AG).
DAP Deputy Chairman Gobind Singh Deo said police should continue to investigate the case and the decision to charge will be made by the AG, Tommy Thomas.
“The matter is now under police investigation and the AG will make a decision on what will be done next. I think, let the Attorney-General make the announcement and we will take it from there,” said the Communications and Multimedia Minister after the launch of the ‘Data Futures Forum 2019: Shaping our Future Together-Towards a Data Enabled Society’, at the Heriot Watt University Malaysia, here today.
Gobind, who took over as Teoh’s family’s lawyer from his late father Karpal Singh, was commenting on the re-classification of police investigation into Teoh’s death under Section 342 of the Penal Code reportedly at the instruction of the AG.
On July 16, 2009, Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor of Plaza Masalam, Shah Alam, after he went to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office on the 14th floor of the same building.
He was then the political secretary of the Permanent Committee for Local Government, New Village Development and Legalising of Factories Committee chairman Ean Yong Hian Wah, who was also Seri Kembangan state assemblyman.
Commenting on a report by a news portal that Home Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had said that Teoh’s family was not satisfied with the compensation accorded them, Gobind said the comment was his (Muhyiddin’s) personal opinion.
Muhyiddin was reported to have said that the government had gone through all legal processes to investigate Teoh’s death, including setting up a Royal Commission of Inquiry and paying compensation to the family.
Teoh’s case was previously investigated under Section 304 of the Penal Code for causing death by negligence or not amounting to culpable homicide. On May 12, 2015, his family obtained RM600,000 in compensation from the government and the MACC. – Bernama