5 dramatic cases other than 1MDB that Datuk Seri Amar Singh has handled

In case you missed out, top cop Commissioner Datuk Seri Amar Singh has retired after 35 illustrious years of service. Y’all probably would have recognised him from the 1MDB raids last May.

Yeah, he’s the one who led the investigations for the 1MDB case as the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief. Apparently, he was supposed to retire on his 60th birthday on 6th June but had to postpone his retirement by 6 months because of his 1MDB work, which he said was the most challenging part of his career.

While Deputy Commissioner Saiful Azly will be taking over his role, Amar plans to pursue his hobby in riding motorcycles. “I have taken part in several riding expeditions, so I believe I will do more now,” Amar told The Star. Maybe he can be friends with Anita Yusof (whom we’ve written about previously), if not yet.

We tried reaching out to him through his personal assistant (PA) to ask him more about his career.. But his PA ended the call while she was discussing with her colleagues about our attempt to contact him. We tried calling again twice but no one picked up.

Anyway, ever since he started his career in the police force in 1983, he’s handled some notable cases before 1MDB. Here are 5 of them:

 

1. The one that involved, erm, chopped body parts…

This was one of the earlier cases Amar and his team had to investigate. To those froyo-loving millennials out there who aren’t familiar with this case, we don’t blame ya. This happened way before you guys were born. Mona Fandey, whose real name is Maznah Ismail, was a pop singer who later switched to being a bomoh.

She, along with her husband Affandi (also a bomoh) and their minion Juraimi, were convicted for killing Batu Talam state assemblyman Datuk Mazlan Idris between 2 July and 8 July 1993 in the couple’s house in Ulu Dong (near Raub).

Mona and Affandi were selling 3 mystical items to Mazlan at the price of RM 2.5 million, so Mazlan could become unbeatable. Mazlan allegedly paid RM 500,000 and gave 10 land titles to roughly cover the other RM 2 million. The couple then invited Mazlan to their house for a mandi bunga ceremony but…

It turned out to be a trap! They chopped and buried his remains under their storeroom, which were later found thanks to Juraimi, who was caught for a drug offence. He confessed about Mazlan’s murder and showed them the crime scene. After several years, they were hanged on 2 November 2001.

But Mazlan was not the only victim. When Amar headed the CCID in Klang, they discovered Mona Fandey’s alleged first victim.

“We found a foot floating in Port Klang. Later, we found the torso and limbs too but without a head. It turned out she was a prostitute who had been killed after seeing Mona Fandey for a black magic ritual.” – said Amar.

 

2. The one where a family lost their mother because of a failed business deal

Those who were in Taman OUG on 6 July 2016 would have witnessed the crime scene where Datin Wong Siu Ling was killed there. According to investigations by Amar’s team, Siu Ling wanted to start a ceramic business and received RM 13 million for the capital from her husband, Datuk Wong Chun Kee, who had business deals in China. She then gave this capital to a businessman and his wife the year before to get it started.

But when she later found that the business was not happening, she asked them to return her money. But instead of paying back what they owed, they hired 2 people to kill her in response to her attempt to get back her money.

“From investigations, police found that the victim had hired a private investigator to locate the businessman and his wife in her bid to get her money returned.” – Amar told a press conference.

While people were celebrating the 1st day of Raya, Siu Ling spent her afternoon driving her kids and maid to lunch. Then, suddenly, the 2 killers arrived on a motorcycle and fired several shots at her car windows. And they didn’t just shoot her.. They also shot her 8 year old daughter’s intestines, since her daughter was sitting in the front passenger seat. Good thing she survived tho!

During the investigations, police were told that the businessman paid them RM 60,000 for the task but… one of the killers said that the businessman actually did not pay the RM10,000 as promised.

We’d think that Chun Kee would have helped his late wife further on this case. But sadly, when the opportunity came last year for him to testify against the 7 suspects with evidence, he didn’t show up. So that broke the chain of evidence and allowed the suspects to be freed.

 

3. The one where two 16-year olds masterminded the worst fire disaster in 20 years!

Last year, a dispute between the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah tahfiz school students and a gang of teens led to the early morning boarding school burning, which snatched the lives of 21 students and 2 teachers, and injured 6 other students.

Based on the CCTV footage, 2 of the 7 accused teens rode there on motorcycles, climbed over the school wall with a water bottle filled with petrol at around 4:30am. Wah, these kids can really be awake so early.. Anyway, the 16-year old boys poured petrol all over the place and lit up the flames using a lighter.

They quickly climbed over the wall back to their motorcycles and rode away. What helped materialise their plan further were the gas canisters that caused the fire to spread rapidly! The students and teachers woke up when the fire broke out and tried to escape… But most of them were trapped by the grills and there was only one door in the whole building!

The teens were arrested and probed for murder, mischief by fire, sudden death and fire report. That’s pretty massive for a bunch of kids like them, considering they caused what was called the worst fire disaster in 20 years. Even Amar acknowledged that they probably didn’t think this through.

“Investigations revealed that their motive was to burn the school. Their basic intent was to cause mischief by fire. But maybe because of their age, they didn’t know that their actions would lead to the final result.” – Amar told reporters.

Among the pieces of evidence seized for the investigation process (including a hydrocarbon analysis) were 5 shirts, 4 helmets, 3 motorcycles, 2 gas cylinders and an accelerant.

And another possible reason why these kids couldn’t think through their actions was that they were high on drugs. Amar said that 6 of them tested positive for ganja. After the investigations were done, 2 of the suspects were charged with murder while the others were charged for using a dangerous drug.

 

4. The one that made the hearts of pathologists skip a beat or two

In November 2016, someone was walking in Pandan Cahaya in Ampang when this someone (honestly, the sources didn’t specify who he or she is) found the dead body of a man. So this someone alerted the police about it.

The body was then sent to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Medical Centre for an autopsy. And guess what they found… 33 capsules of syabu in his stomach!

“The 33 capsules weigh a total of around 300 grams, with each capsule weighing 8 to 10 grams,” – Amar stated.

He added that the estimated value of this much syabu was RM 20,000. Although the victim tested negative for drug use, the reason he had these packets of drugs in his body still remains a mystery to us.

But we did learn a few years ago that even a teeny-tiny amount of 0.1-0.2 grams is enough to make a person high… with some pretty horrific side effects. So imagine the impact of putting 300 grams into someone’s body. 🙁

 

5. The one where an actor took action-thriller to the next level!

A drama actor (not named tho), along with his co-stars, a son of a Datuk who owns an international school and a Filipino IT consultant, were allegedly involved in… planting ganja just so they could get high on it themselves.

According to Amar, the ganja seeds were likely bought from the United Kingdom for £10 per seed and they’ve been planting it in the Datuk’s house for four months. But their ganja making was stopped short when Amar’s team raided the house and arrested the boys.

“An inspection of the house also found three potted plants at 19 to 100 centimetres in height and dry leaves estimated to weigh over 400 grammes both suspected to be ganja and a straw tube containing suspected ganja seeds.” – Amar said.

Apart from the ganja plants and leaves, police also seized like 4 air pistols, 2 air rifles, 7 samurai swords, 19 knives, an axe, 3 notebooks, brass knuckles, a police vest and a police beacon light. The reason they had these items was still unclear but all the seized stuff put together are worth around RM 25,000. The 3 idiots suspects, who tested positive for drugs, were remanded for 6 days.

 

Making the best of a legacy in the police force

Perhaps his work on such dramatic cases made him stand out among the rest, so much that there was even a petition to make him the next IGP… But it didn’t gain much traction. On the bright side, the Sikh Foundation and Asia Samachar hailed him as the highest-ranking Sikh police officer in Malaysia.

We also learnt about how much the veteran looks up to his dad, uncle and grandpa, who were also policemen.

It was actually his dad who advised him to join the police force when Amar wondered what to do with his Master’s in Criminal Justice. He initially didn’t wanna be a policeman but later changed his mind and ended up loving his job.

No wonder he holds on to his dad’s staff number “KPL 1610”… Even during his 6 month training at Pulapol, there were times when Amar had second thoughts about his path. But what motivated him to stay on was his uncle.

“Those salutes that your father and I have given (as rank and file policemen), collect them all back (once you are an officer).” – his uncle’s advice to Amar.

“This was a driving force for me. When I was the commandant at Pulapol and received salutes in the thousands, I used to think of both of them. I would say: ‘These salutes are for you’.” – Amar described his uncle’s advice as his source of motivation.

It’s no surprise that he has succeeded in making his family proud while pursuing a path that he truly enjoyed, even saying that he would do it all again if he could.