Oki's ex-girlfriend denies ignoring police summons
Oki's ex-girlfriend denies ignoring police summons
JAKARTA (JP): The ex-girlfriend of the main suspect in the case of the Los Angeles triple murder has denied ignoring summons to attend police headquarters for questioning.
Ruyalti, widely known as Ipunk, insisted that, in the time since was questioned by police about three weeks ago, she had never received a single formal notice from the police.
"I'm ready (to go to city police headquarters for questioning) if I am summoned, either formally or informally," she was quoted by the newspaper Suara Pembaruan as saying.
The daily reported yesterday that Ipunk had claimed she knew nothing about a plastic bag which was allegedly used by her ex- boyfriend Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, to bundle up the dead body of Suresh Mirchandani, a business associate of Indian origins who was one of the three murder victims.
"Honestly, I don't know about that plastic bag," said Ipunk, who was still living with the suspect in the United States in 1991, the year in which Suresh is believed to have been murdered.
Earlier, police officers, including City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko and secretary to the head of the City Crime Investigation Directorate, Lt. Col. MD Primanto, had said that Ipunk had ignored a police summons.
Ipunk's lawyer, Denny Kailimang, said: "It's impossible that Ipunk would have ignored a summons from the police since to have done so would have been to disobey the rules."
Deny said detectives from the murder and kidnapping unit of the City Crime Investigation Directorate had told him that they had never issued a formal letter to Ipunk.
Bambang could not be reached for further comment yesterday.
Besides the question of the plastic bag, a statement from Ipunk is needed by both Jakarta and Los Angeles detectives to shed light on Oki's activities in Los Angeles.
"We know that Ipunk knows many things about Oki and his activities there," deputy to National Police Chief for Operational Affairs Maj. Gen. Koesparmono Irsan told reporters yesterday.
Oki, 30, is regarded by the Los Angeles police as the prime suspect in the killing of his brother Tri Harto Darmawan, known as Eri, Gina Sutan Aswar, a young Indonesian woman, and Suresh.
A warrant of arrest was issued by the Los Angeles police after they identified the decomposed bodies of the three victims late last year.
Oki was apprehended in Central Jakarta on Jan. 7 in connection with suspected passport forgery. He was later questioned for his alleged role in the murders, which are believed to have been committed between 1991 and 1993.
Two days after the arrest, Jakarta police detectives asked Ipunk to provide information. During the interview that followed, Ipunk reportedly replied to most of the questions with the words "I don't know."
Koesparmono said that Indonesia and the United States had not yet decided on the venue of Oki's trial.
"It's fifty-fifty," he said.
Two Los Angles police detectives are expected to arrive here early next week to collect further information and become acquainted with the findings already made by Jakarta police.
When asked about the possibility that there was a connection between the murder and a drugs syndicate, Koesparmono said: "Our investigation does not extend to any such question." (bsr)