Police name four suspects in taxi case

City police investigators said on Wednesday that they had named four suspects in a forgery case related to the issuance of an operational permit for taxi company PT Primer Metro Transindo.

"Definitely, this is a forgery case. We have named four suspects in the case," city police chief Insp. Gen. Firman Gani announced publicly on the sidelines of the city's 478th anniversary celebration at City Council.

Firman, however, declined to reveal the identities of the suspects.

Late last month, City Audit Agency head Firman Hutajulu said his agency had submitted three names of officials it strongly suspected of being involved in the forgery case.

They were current head of the public transportation business division with the Jakarta Transportation Agency, Bambang Gardjito, former transportation division of the Jakarta Economic Development Bureau, Nahar Arifin and the incumbent head of the passenger vehicles section with the City Economic Development Bureau, Rizwan Santosa.

Firman said the administration had already decided to dismiss the officials when they passed their findings on to the police.

According to the Criminal Code, they could face a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

The case was divulged by Jakarta Deputy Governor Fauzi Bowo, whose name and signature were allegedly forged on a document notifying relevant city agencies about the approval to operate 300 taxi cabs belonging to PT Primer. The forged document was later sent to the City Transportation Agency with the issuance of new taxi operation permit.

"I am sure that the document is fake as I have not signed any document approving a new taxi operator recently," Fauzi asserted Wednesday.

Fauzi added that police had summoned him for questioning as a witness and he would be meeting them next week. -- JP