No protection order for Sanjeevan, say Seremban police: KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — The Seremban police cannot spare any staff to provide full-time protection for anti-crime activist R. Sanjeevan, unless it receives specific instructions from at least the state’s top police brass to do so, the district police chief said today. Assistant Commisioner of Police Zainal Abu said he has not been informed of any decision from his superiors or even heard of a request by Sanjeevan for protection at his family house. “You must understand, we at the Seremban station cannot give full protection to him unless he goes under the witness protection programme,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted. “From my level, protection is given as per what is given to everybody else. If it is true that there is a threat and a report is lodged, we can give some extra attention. “If we provide him special protection, then everybody will start demanding for the same and that would put us in a bind. Even protection for VIPs depends on investigations into their complaints,” he said. Earlier today, Sanjeevan took to Twitter claiming that masked men had gone to his house in the city here, where he is recuperating after a surgery to remove a bullet lodged in his chest shot by an assailant in July. “Now, I’m focusing on recovering as well as my family’s safety as many unwanted things are happening. Many trying to silence me!” “@PDRMsia refused to give protection to my house despite people wearing masks coming to my house & it’s really scary. @anwaribrahim,” he wrote on his Twitter, tagging Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the posting. Anwar has since retweeted Sanjeevan’s post, tagging it as “Urgent!”. Zainal repeated that he is not in a position to offer Sanjeevan special protection, especially since has not received any report on the alleged incident. He said if Sanjeevan feels so strongly about the need for special protection, he could apply directly to Bukit Aman to be put under the witness protection programme. “Either he himself applies, or if the the government thinks that it must be provided... it can come either way, but he has to go through the proper channels,” Zainal said. Sanjeevan, a hotel executive, came into the public eye recently with allegations of corruption within the police top brass. The chairman of a crime watchdog, MyWatch, was shot at close range on July 27 near his hometown in Bahau, Negri Sembilan after taking to Twitter where he hinted to having proof to link an unnamed senior policeman to underworld figures. Hours before his shooting, Sanjeevan had tweeted: “A @PDRMsia cop told some syndicate fellow that he’ll get them firearm & told them to fire few shots at my house to scare me/family!” He was rushed to the district hospital in Jempol immediately after the shooting, and later transferred to the Seremban general hospital before being moved to Serdang Hospital for surgery to remove the bullet that had lodged in his chest some 18 days after being shot. Doctors had warned Ramakrishnan that Sanjeevan had suffered a certain degree of trauma which could cause him to have memory lapses after he fell into a 10-day long coma, according to past news reports by The Star daily. Police have yet to make any arrests over Sanjeevan’s shooting. dlvr.it/3y46dt
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 10:00:46 +0000