Police vow not to drop cases
JAKARTA (JP): City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Dibyo Widodo gave assurances yesterday that no criminal cases would be "frozen", as many have feared.
Dibyo was responding to concerns that the long interval since police last made announcements regarding major investigations, such as the triple murder in Los Angeles, the Danasonic chain savings scheme and the assault of a businessman by thugs allegedly hired by a private bank, indicated that the police meant to drop their enquiries.
"Very often, the police need extra time to investigate complicated cases," Dibyo said. "We have no intention of freezing any investigation."
Among dossiers that the police will be handing over to the prosecutors' office is that regarding a beating of a business man, reportedly in connection with a loan dispute with the Panin Bank, Dibyo said.
He said the dossiers on Harnoko Dewantono, alias Oki, 30, who is suspected of killing two Indonesians and an Indian in Los Angeles, were almost complete and ready to be transferred to the prosecutors' office.
"We don't need any further witnesses or evidence," Dibyo said.
Oki was recently sentenced to four years imprisonment for passport forgery and is serving his term in Cipinang prison.
Dibyo said that police had almost completed their work in bringing to court executives of Jakarta-based PT Saptamitra Ekakarya, owner of the controversial Danasonic chain savings scheme.
"So, it's just a matter of time," he said.
Police believe the firm cheated thousands of people and earned billions of rupiah in an illegal business.
Amid growing public concern, city police closed down the operation of the Danasonic arisan savings chain scheme in April, after three years of operation.
The firm's executives, an elderly couple identified as Sindi Husain and his wife Anneke Kolondam, respectively commissioner and president of the firm, were arrested early this month on suspicion of fraud and forgery.
Within days of the arrest, Dibyo promised that the dossiers on the two suspects would be handed over to the prosecutors' office for trial.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Permantoro said yesterday that the Danasonic officials' dossiers were currently being studied by the prosecutors.
"We'll be informed when they (the prosecutors) have finished with the dossiers," Bambang said.
Asked about progress in the case of a businessman who claims to have been kidnapped and beaten by hired thugs, Dibyo said that, in that matter also, police would soon forward the dossiers to the prosecutors for trial.
He refused, however, to give further details, saying that police investigators were still studying all available data.
Businessman Sulaiman Iskandar Ramli, better known as Han Seng, reported to the police last month that he had been kidnapped and beaten by a group of 40 people hired by the Panin Bank in relation to a loan of Rp 3.6 billion (US$1.6 million) he received from the bank in 1990.
He claimed that the money had actually been borrowed by an acquaintance of his who worked at the bank, who had later handed it over to a relative. (bsr)