Checking fallacious reports part of our job: Police
Checking fallacious reports part of our job: Police
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The high-profile case of "missing" singer Reza Artamevia, who was
later found to be hiding out at her spiritual guru's house, has
put the Jakarta Police's investigation under the spotlight.
Police, who had began investigating Reza's disappearance when
she was first reported missing last Monday by her management,
from the start had been careful not to jump to conclusions.
City police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani initially cast doubt
on whether Reza was kidnapped, saying police had not ruled out
that Reza had planned to disappear.
Their suspicions were later confirmed. After days of Reza
being headline news, a member of the artist's management team,
Dyah Damayanti, withdrew her report on the missing case,
admitting the diva was hiding at the house of her spiritual
teacher Gatot Brajamusti in Sukabumi, West Java, about 120
kilometers south of Jakarta.
Her claims were backed up by the many info-tainment TV
programs that broadcast an interview with Reza, in which the
singer admitted that she had not been kidnapped but disappeared
of her own free will.
In the interview, she said she apologized for all her mistakes
to her husband, actor-cum-legislator Adjie Massaid. The two have
been in a legal battle over Reza's filing for divorce and the
custody of their children.
Although the missing case was finally solved, the police said
they could not file a complaint against the makers of the report
because they did not find evidence that Reza's lawyer and
management had made up a story they knew to be false.
"The report indeed made us work for nothing, but it's part of
our service to the public. I can only say that I'm glad nothing
bad happened to her," police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said on
Sunday.
Police earlier had questioned authorities at the Soekarno-
Hatta International Airport, where Reza was last seen by her
friends after returning from a show in Surabaya. Police had also
checked the passenger list of Reza's flight and questioned flight
attendants.
The city police had often received reports that turned out to
be false, he said.
Another high-profile case involved corruption allegations
against management in the SMU 13 state high school in North
Jakarta, police said.
"After questioning witnesses and visiting the school, we found
no evidence nor indication of corruption," the anti-corruption
unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anton Wahono said.
"We had spent a lot of time and energy for nothing. Of course
we are upset, but there's nothing we can do."
Police in Indonesia are often accused of halting
investigations into graft suspects after receiving bribes from
them.