Responding to the letter by Susanna Liew, CAGED, which was formed to highlight cases of missing persons, also called for the police to apologise for their negligence and to act more professionally in the future.
“The letter has exposed that the IGP exercised double standards. This is because he urged the family not to speak to the media about the abduction, but himself cavalierly and carelessly spoke to the media about the abduction,” CAGED said in a statement, adding that Liew should be applauded for her courage for writing the letter.
CAGED, which is led by rights group Suaram, was formed in May and also comprises electoral reforms coalition Bersih 2.0, PKR Youth, Lawyers for Liberty, Perlis Hope and Pusat Komas.
The group said it was particularly alarmed by Liew’s allegation of inconsistencies between the IGP’s announcement on June 25 of “new leads” in Koh’s disappearance linked to a drug bust in Kedah, with the details given by the Kedah police chief one week before.
“Khalid said the ‘new leads’ came after a ‘main player’ in an arms, drugs and human trafficking syndicate was shot dead in Kedah but Kedah police chief Asri Yusoff’s June 18 press conference did not reveal any link.
“The Kedah list of items seized included two car number plates, WNS5168 and BNW217. It did not include any objects related to Pastor Koh. Yet, on June 25, Khalid said the Kedah police had seized, from the house of the ‘main player’, a number plate bearing the letters ST5515D, the registration number of the car Pastor Koh was driving when he was abducted.”
CAGED called for Khalid to explain why was the number plate ST5515D not included in the list of seized items released by the Kedah police on June 18.
“Did you fabricate the claim that Pastor Raymond Koh’s number plate was found in the dead suspect’s house?” the group asked the IGP, adding that the public would surely want to know the answer.
Koh, 62, was abducted by a group of masked men less than 100 metres from the Police Housing Complex in SS4, Kelana Jaya, on the morning of Feb 13.
Video footage later emerged showing what looked like a well-executed plan involving seven vehicles and at least 12 individuals.
The entire incident took place in under a minute, after which all the vehicles, including Koh’s car, were seen driven away.
Khalid later revealed that police were also investigating Koh for proselytising, as there were police reports over such an offence.
Liew had previously voiced dissatisfaction with the lack of police updates on the case, saying she only knew what she had read in the media.
She also expressed disappointment with Khalid for investigating her husband’s alleged proselytising rather than solving his abduction.