Police investigating potential insider involvement for stolen school funds

KAJANG - The police are conducting a thorough investigation on a potential 'insider' involvement on the case where a headmaster in Selangor carried a substantial amount of money meant for the school’s aid which was later stolen

Kajang District Police Chief, Asst Commissioner Mohd Zaid Hassan stated that an investigation would be conducted to determine if there were elements of negligence when the school principal was transporting the money.

"For now we will continue the investigation by re-examining the CCTV recordings to identify individuals who enter and exit the bank.

"We will investigate from all directions for a likeliness of insider involvement or negligence. We have recorded the principals statement and there will be more individual statements recorded in the future," he told reporters after the 19th Ops Selamat in conjunction with Chinese New Year here on Tuesday.

Mohd Zaid said nevertheless he was disappointed because the school did not request for security escort from the police to withdraw such a large sum of money.

Zahid explained that the police have always offered escort services to more than 100 schools around Kajang if they wanted to withdraw a large sum of money from the bank.

"From our interrogation of the headmaster, he said he had never before asked for a police escort in his 10 years of service and that such an incident has never occured before.

"That is why we advise the schools to request for a police escort if they plan to withdraw large amounts of money. The police will accompany them from the bank to their destinations ," he said.

On Monday (Jan 16), a thief allegedly broke into the headmaster’s car and escaped with RM109,000 that was kept in the front passenger seat when he had gone to get a drink from a nearby restaurant in Semenyih.

The money, meant for financial aid to the school, was earlier withdrawn from a bank in Kampung Baru Semenyih by the headmaster and placed in a bag.