Authorities have arrested 8 men over the suspicion of deliberately cutting Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) fibre optic cables which causes an outage and RM 500 000 worth of losses.
Government buildings like banks in Ayer Keroh, the Bukit Baru housing area, Kandang and Merlimau and courthouses were affected by outage.
Malacca Tengah district police chief, ACP Afzanizar Ahmad, said the suspects were arrested at different locations in Malacca Tengah and Jasin, as well as Muar and Batu Pahat in Johor on Aug 3 and Aug 4.
Bernama reported that the investigations are still ongoing, but he does not discount the possibility that suspects — between 24 and 42 years of age and former TM contractors, including a supervisor — might have acted maliciously as a result of business rivalry.
Four police reports were made by a TM technician at the police station in Kandang on July 31, Merlimau on Aug 1, and Bukit Baru on Aug 1 and 3.
“Subsequently, a special team was assembled and suspects 1 – 6 were arrested in Muar and Malacca Tengah, while two more gave themselves up at the Malacca Tengah District Police Headquarters (IPK),” Afzanizar said yesterday at a press conference after briefing on a standard operating procedure (SOP) recovery motion control order (RMCO).
He added that two of the suspects aged 26 and 27 have a record of arrest for drug- and car theft-related crimes, and that all are on remand for four days for investigation under section 427 of the Penal Code , which provides for a maximum of two years ‘ imprisonment upon sentence.
He said they also confiscated three vehicles, a manhole key and pliers believed to have been used to commit the crime.
In a separate development, Afzanizar said that since April 8, 82 compound fines totalling RM82,000 had been issued to members of the public, business operators, and customers for not adhering to the National Security Council (MKN) and Health Ministry SOP.
At the same time, business or entertainment premises operators are not permitted to request or keep the identification card of a visitor and should actually use the MySejahtera app or manually record specifics as per SOP, he said.
