11 PPS members have prior police records, says paper
Even as police continue their crackdown on the Penang Voluntary Patrol (PPS), it has been revealed that 11 of the 156 members detained had criminal records for theft, robbery, homicide and offences related to drugs and triads, The Star reported today.
State police chief Datuk Wira Abdul Rahim Hanafi said that one member had been detained under the Emergency Ordinance for his ties with a secret society, before it was repealed.
He also said that police had never received any applications to vet members of the PPS unit, as was claimed by the Penang government.
“I have never commended the state for setting up the unit and my men have never conducted patrols with them,” he was quoted as saying in the report.
Rahim said the police had obtained a one-day remand for 135 PPS members in order to facilitate investigations for violations under the Societies Act as the patrol unit was an unlawful society.
“We seized membership cards, berets, walkie-talkies, purple T-shirts and vests from the members," he was reported as saying, adding that those detained were aged 17 to 18 years old.
“We will continue our blitz on the remaining PPS members who are still at large."
The state's top cop also called on remaining PPS members to surrender, saying that authorities had details of at least 30% (2,700) of its members.
“The arrests were made based on the rule of law and have nothing to do with politics,” he said in Penang yesterday.
Yesterday, Seri Delima assemblyman R.S.N. Rayer, who is reportedly the area's PPS head, was also arrested at about 6pm but was released at 4am today.
George Town OCPD assistant commissioner Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said Rayer, who was also representing the PPS members who were detained, would be probed under the Societies Act 1966.
All the detainees have now been released.
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had been on a collision course with IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar after the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had stated that the anti-crime voluntary group was illegal as it had not been registered.
Lim had called on Khalid for a public debate over the matter, saying it was unfair of Khalid to call all PPS members "gangsters" because of a few bad apples.
“We have over 9,000 members. Is it fair to arrest all of them just because of a few bad apples?
“If that is the case, the police have a lot to answer to as there are many disciplinary cases as well as custodial deaths in police lock-ups,” he was reported to have said during a press conference.
The DAP secretary-general said the state government had decided to halt all PPS activities until the court decides on the legality of the unit.
“The state government will also provide legal assistance to them and to state exco Phee Boon Poh, who was also detained,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.
He also said several of the senior citizens, who were part of the PPS contingent taken into custody by police, had consumed medication, which had contributed to the positive drug test results. – September 2, 2014.
