Taiping police chief Osman Mamat said that according to the procedures, the daughter who paid the bail online should have produced the payment slip at the court counter as proof of payment.
“Following this, a letter of release signed by the magistrate, bailor and the accused will be issued. The person offering the bail should then produce this letter at the police station before the accused can be released.
“This is the standard operating procedure which was not followed by the bailor and the accused. So the report is inaccurate. As such, we deny the report by FMT on the issue,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Osman urged the people not to be influenced by statements which are inaccurate.
On Monday, FMT reported that Saroja Devi Krishnan, 46, was handcuffed, taken to the police station and had to spend the night in the lock-up despite settling her RM500 bail on time last Friday.
This was after magistrate Adibah Kadir fined Saroja Devi RM2,000 after she pleaded guilty to negligence under Section 289 of the Penal Code, resulting in a dog under her control attacking and injuring a neighbour.
However, Saroja Devi, who works as a cook and has seven children, appealed for a lower fine and the magistrate fixed RM500 as bail pending the hearing of her appeal on Oct 25.
Her daughter, Rangitha Gobi, 22, said Saroja Devi was forced to endure the night in the lock-up although she had shown the proof of her online payment.
She said only the timely intervention of the magistrate (Adibah) enabled her mother to be released the next day. Otherwise, she would have had to spend another two nights in the lock-up as it was a weekend.
“I made the payment at 12.39pm and the court was on lunch break. A police officer in the court told me my mother would be released by the police. When she did not return home by 4pm, I called the police to find out why,” she told FMT.
Rangitha said the police officer told her as it was a Friday, she would have to wait until Monday to get the “release letter” from the court before they could free her mother, although she showed them proof of payment.
“I went back to the court the next morning and, thank God, the court was open although it was a Saturday. Adibah was kind enough to see me and was surprised that my mother was not released.
“She instructed the police to bring my mother to the court and released her immediately. Adibah even apologised to my mother on behalf of everybody responsible. We really wish to thank her for this,” she said.