I am surprised by a report today in which it is alleged that a victim of a threat of rape at a police station was asked by the police to go back to the same station for her statement to be taken in respect of that matter.
The victim is complaining of a threat by an officer at that very station and the police want her to go back there to make statements? An incident like this can be extremely traumatising. How can the police expect the victim to go back there for a statement?
I am also surprised this case has not been assigned to an independent police team for investigations.
We can ill-afford to have concerns of bias raised if officers from the same station are assigned to investigate this case. Again, one would have thought this to be elementary.
Threats of rape are in themselves most serious in nature, what more where it is alleged to have been made in a police station by an officer whilst the victim was detained in police custody.
I call upon the police to demonstrate that they are serious and transparent in their investigations in this case. They must work towards restoring public confidence that police stations are places which are safe and more importantly that they will do all that is needed to weed out unwanted elements from the force when complaints of this nature arise and fairly.
They must now start by first setting up an independent team to probe the complaint in this case and investigations should not be carried out at Dang Wangi, which is for now, the alleged scene of the crime.
This is certainly a matter of public interest and concern which I will raise in Parliament next week.