KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6- The police have opened 56 case files under the Crime Prevention Act (CPA) after more than 3,000 detentions, following ‘Special Ops Cantas’ which was launched on Aug 17.
Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said, of the total, 21 people had been remanded to facilitate investigations under PCA Act 1959 and Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
“Nine cases will be prosecuted and 11 others investigated,” he said after delivering his address at a one-day discourse titled, ‘Society and Crime: Where Are We’, here Thursday.
The event was organised by the National Professor Council (MPN), in cooperation with Berita Harian (BH).
On Ops Cantas, Khalid said it was fruitful in significantly reducing the crime index.
For example, from Aug 17 to 31, he said the police screened 139,342 people and arrested 3,205 suspects for investigation. A total 84,011 vehicles were checked for forbidden items such as firearms and drugs.
The inspector-general of police noted that a comparison of the statistics in the two weeks from Aug 1 to 16, and Aug 17 to 31, showed the impact of ‘Ops Cantas’ which resulted in a drop in violent crimes to 1,067 cases from 1,162 cases or 8.2 percent.
Khalid hoped the CPA would be amended promptly to enable the police to carry out their duties effectively, because violent crimes had gone up after the preventive laws, internal security act, emergency ordinance and restricted residence act were abolished.
He noted that if the statistics in the 20-month period before and after the abolishing of the preventive laws, namely from April 12, 2010 until Dec 21, 2011 and Dec 22, 2011 until Aug 31, 2013, were compared, figures for violent crime indicated a 5.43 per cent hike or 2,351 cases, to 45,664 cases from 43,313 cases.
The statistics of cases involving killing using firearms had also shown an increase from 64 cases to 130 cases, or an increase of 103.1 per cent, during the same period.
– BERNAMA
