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T Coca Cola Bottling Indonesia (CCB) claims that the National Police have no legal basis to name it a suspect in an allegedly illegal groundwater extraction case in Sumedang, West Java.

Todung Mulya Lubis, CCB'€™s lawyer, told The Jakarta Post that the company had been charged in the case simply because of bureaucratic delays.

'€œThe firm is not guilty in this case because it applied for a new groundwater usage permits [SIPAs] three years ago, but it is still waiting for the extensions,'€ he said.

On April 4, the police said they suspected the company of violating Article 94 of Law No. 7/2004 on water resources, by illegally extracting groundwater in the area for soft drink production without the necessary SIPA.

The National Police'€™s deputy director for special crimes, Sr. Comr. Alex Mandalika, said the CCB continued to extract water even though its extraction permits for eight locations in Sumedang had expired in 2010 and 2011.

Todung added that the company had previously shut down five of its wells, as requested by the Sumedang district head, on March 1. The National Police also halted operations of its eight remaining wells due to the lack of permits. Due to this, the CCB was forced to extract water from the nearby Cimande River, reducing the company'€™s factory'€™s capacity by 30 percent.

He explained that he had been informed that the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) had held a meeting with all the stakeholders, including the Sumedang administration, involved in the case.

'€œI hope the BKPM will work hard to protect the rights of foreign investors because we all know that this case is being monitored by foreign investors, and this looks bad for Indonesia. Who would want to invest here when Indonesia is criminalizing a company that has been here for for 20 years?'€ Todung said.

He also criticized the police for not informing the CCB that it had been declared a suspect.

Separately, Alex told the Post that the police were not obliged to send a statement to a suspect during an investigation.

'€œIt is the company'€™s right to declare its innocence in the face of a criminal charge, but we do not have an obligation to tell the firm that it is a suspect in a case,'€ he said.

Alex explained that although the police had named CCB'€™s entire management as a suspect, his team of investigators was monitoring the company in order to determine the degree of involvement by each member of CCB'€™s management board. (fss)