Bukit Aman criminal investigation department director Shuhaily Zain said the police expect the RM20,000 reward, offered by the Selangor Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (Selangor MCPF), will result in information that will lead to the arrest of Zayn’s murderer.

“Maybe the RM20,000 reward would motivate those who witnessed the crime to come out and give us a new lead. Rest assured that we will process any lead we have,” he told Bernama.

On Feb 6, MCPF deputy chairman A Thaiveegan said Selangor MCPF is offering a RM20,000 reward to those who help the police with information leading to the arrest of Zayn’s murderer.

Thaiveegan, a former Penang police chief who retired in 2019, said the reward would be channelled through the Selangor police headquarters.

Zayn, an autistic six-year-old boy, was reported missing at noon on Dec 5 last year. He was found dead the next day near a stream about 200m from his home with injuries to his neck.

The case was reclassified from sudden death to murder after a post-mortem revealed injuries to the boy’s body. Defensive wounds were also found.

Despite facing challenges such as identifying the primary location of the murder, Shuhaily said the police have never stopped investigating the case.

“At this particular time, my team is still looking at the technical aspects,” he said.

“Most of the forensic results are already in, and the challenge we are facing now is that we cannot identify the primary location of the incident. What we have is the secondary location.

“We are still refining some technical matters, including the statements collected from the public.”