Investigations must be proper and professional
By The Star
IF only life was as simple as an episode of CSI, where a case, no matter how complicated, can be solved within an hour.
Though the speedy solution acted out on the tube cannot really happen in real life, we still expect any investigation, no matter how minor or major a case, to be proper, thorough and professional.
Sloppy investigation leads to a weak case and one should not be surprised if the court lets the accused walk because the burden of proof rests solely on the prosecution.
Two cases from the not-so-distant-past that come to mind are the murders of Chinese national Xu Jian Huang, 14, and marketing executive Noritta Shamsuddin, 22.
The ongoing Commission of Inquiry into the death of Teoh Beng Hock has revealed, once again, the poor state of the investigation process.
The commission revisited the scene in Shah Alam last week and it must have pained all of us to learn that no one did a thorough check beneath the manhole near where Teoh fell to search for evidence.
One of the commissioners, noted forensic pathologist Datuk Dr Bhupinder Singh, has rightfully asked about the missing watch. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the watch, if it had stopped upon impact, would have provided valuable clues to the time of death.
And what about the evidence of police investigating officer ASP Ahmad Nazri Zainal in which he revealed that he did not examine several VCDs, a thumbdrive, a Bluetooth device and a camera found in Teoh’s slingbag that were handed to him?
An exasperated commission chairman Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen remarked, “It’s elementary, isn’t it? It’s simple, just open, put them in the computer and see if it’s important or not.”
That the commission has to practically start from scratch again at this stage casts serious doubts on how inadequate the Coroner’s Inquiry had been.
It bears reminding that in both forums, all parties are supposed to be in one accord and to help one another get to the truth.
It is not meant to be about who wins or who loses. Neither is it meant to be political in which the various parties try to score points in the court of public opinion. At the end of the day, the truth must be revealed so that the next steps can be taken up properly in a court of law.
Our investigating officers must wake up to the reality that any sloppy work on their part can be easily revealed by anyone who watches TV.
