Geo-radar detectors find passageway

JAKARTA (JP): Geo-radar detectors have indicated the existence of a passageway leading from Jl. Cendana in the Menteng area of Central Jakarta, to the former office of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) on Jl. Teuku Umar in Menteng, a top police officer said on Tuesday.

"The passageway runs below the intersection of Jl. Teuku Umar and Jl. Tanjung in Central Jakarta. The Bulog office itself, now defunct and used by an elite police unit to secure the Cendana area, is located next to the Indonesian Heart Foundation's headquarters," city police chief of detectives Sr. Comr. Harry Montolalu told reporters at the House of Representatives (DPR) building.

The desperate search for subterranean bunkers below and around the residence of the fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was initially motivated by the belief that Tommy could be hiding in one of them.

Harry added on Tuesday that the passageway also seemed to be linked to the residence of Army Maj. Gen. (ret) Murtiyoso on Jl. Cendana 2A, located some 100 meters from former president Soeharto's residence on Jl. Cendana No. 6-10 in Central Jakarta.

The city police's Chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman said on Monday that rather than hoping to find Tommy in a subterranean bunker, the police were actually hoping to find leads.

"Now, we're searching for leads... any strong lead that could be in those bunkers, which could bring the police to Tommy," city police chief Insp. Gen. Mulyono Sulaiman told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"We believe that we will find at least one strong lead, which will lead us to Tommy."

Other than the bunker which police located below Tommy's house on Jl. Cendana, police have also drilled holes at six other spots, five of which are inside Tommy's residence.

"These were test drillings that we conducted," National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Saleh Saaf told reporters earlier.

"In all six spots, we hit planks of some kind, not earth. This strengthened our suspicion that there could be more bunkers underground, and that Tommy could possibly be hiding there."

Despite having earlier found nobody in the air-conditioned and well-furnished subterranean bunker discovered under Tommy's house, police have refused to eliminate the possibility that the fugitive, a billionaire businessman, could be hiding somewhere in or around Jl. Cendana in the leafy Menteng district of Central Jakarta.(ylt)