GEORGE TOWN – The coroner’s court investigating the cause of disappearance and death of Australian grandmother Annapuranee Jenkins was told by police today that the case cannot be classified as a crime for certain reasons.
Northeast district police station’s Criminal Investigation Division head, Mohd Najib Abd Rahim, said that at the initial stage of the investigation, police did not find any clues or information that could link her disappearance to criminal elements such as kidnapping or murder.
“If at the early stage police had found Annapuranee’s body, the investigation papers would certainly be opened under Section 302,” he said, referring to the Penal Code provision that deals with the crime of murder.
“Or if at that time, the next of kin had received threats that the victim was kidnapped or that there was an element asking for ransom, of course we would have investigated it as a criminal case,” he said in front of coroner Norsalha Hamzah today.
However, lawyer S. Raveentharan, who is holding a watching brief of the Jenkins family, disputed Najib’s answer.
He pointed out that in the initial police report lodged by Annapuranee’s husband, Francis Jenkins after she went missing in December 2017, it was mentioned that she was followed by two Ukrainian men who also asked for her passport.
“Isn’t this act of asking for a passport also a form of hostage crime?” Raveentharan said.
Najib, 41, explained that at that time, police did not have any complete information about the two Ukrainian men, as her husband claimed.
In fact, he added, the matter was only specifically known to the head of the criminal investigation division of the northeast district station at the time, DSP Helmi.
“I only took up the position as head of the criminal investigation division on September 5, 2018,” he said.
Annapuranee, 67, went missing after she alighted from a ride sharing Uber service along the busy Scotland Road on December 13, 2017.
The inquest began in March this year and continued last Monday.
Her remains were found at a construction site near the Penang Turf Club in June 2020 in the Batu Gantong area, about 900m from where she was last seen alighting from the Uber ride.
She was visiting her mother here when she mysteriously went missing for three years before her skeletal remains were uncovered by a construction worker.
The inquest continues tomorrow with a visit to the site where Annapuranee's remains were found at Batu Gantong. – The Vibes, July 21, 2022
