IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said that he and his family members were all known to Gopinathan Krishnan, but said that he would never be in cahoots with any criminals operating illegal activities. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) admitted today knowing a man who allegedly collected bribes from operators running illegal businesses that would be channelled to the police.

In a press conference today, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said that he and his family members were all known to the man, named Gopinathan Krishnan in a report by whistleblower site Sarawak Report, but said that he would never be in cahoots with any criminals operating illegal activities.

“People who know me and my family members, if they do any illegal activities, they have to answer for it. In this case, this Gopi, if he has done any illegal thing, in this case SPRM is investigating, and me and my officers will give full cooperation to SPRM in this investigation,” Khalid said, using the abbreviation to refer to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

“Yeah, he is known to me and he is also known to my family,” he said, when asked if Gopinathan was indeed his family friend, as alleged in Sarawak Report last week.

“Those who know me and my family members, if they do anything behind my back, it’s not possible for me to know, but they have to answer for it. Me or my officers will not be in cahoots with them if they do any activities which violate the laws,” he added.

The London-based Sarawak Report had claimed that several middle men were detained in a recent anti-corruption operation in Melaka, for allegedly controlling the operations of illegal businesses in the state, with Gopinathan reportedly being the central figure.

The intermediaries were allegedly controlling the businesses on behalf of many other senior police figures at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

“It has been further reported that the state officers concerned were effectively saying they had been pressured by the intermediaries who had senior contacts at police HQ (Bukit Aman) to do the collections of cash in order to keep their jobs. If they failed to cooperate, they told interviewers, they would be removed and indeed several have been removed for refusing to do so,” Sarawak Report claimed, citing sources.

Sarawak Report said that the special MACC operation which saw many police officers detained for corruption, was aptly named ‘Ops Gopi’, in reference to Gopinathan. The latter has reportedly also been detained.

It claimed to have obtained phone billing information showing a man by the name of Mohd Isa Hussin whom Gopinathan had contacted seven times last April.

According to Sarawak Report, Mohd Isa is a Negri Sembilan village chief and supposedly Khalid's brother-in-law.

The London-based site claimed that the illegal protection racket was not only limited to Melaka, but it was “a multi-million ringgit collection scam” operating all over Malaysia over the past few years.

The MACC has arrested 13 individuals since last month, including two district police chiefs in Melaka, in a corruption investigation on police officers who allegedly collected “protection money” from the operators of illegal gambling centres and massage parlours in the state.