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Custodian of funds?: Police investigate janitor’s bank account in AGO fire case
The account had hundreds of millions of rupiah.
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The remains of the main building of the Attorney General’s Office compound in South Jakarta smolder on Aug. 25 after having been gutted by fire. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
T
he National Police's Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) is examining a bank account owned by a janitor working at the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in its investigation of a fire that destroyed the office’s main building in South Jakarta on Aug. 22.
The bank account had hundreds of millions of rupiah.
Bareskrim general crimes director Brig. Gen. Ferdy Sambo said investigators and the janitor had visited the bank on Wednesday to obtain the bank account’s records.
“We have visited BRI [Bank Rakyat Indonesia] and Bank Mandiri to ask for a printout of the janitor’s bank account for the past five years,” Ferdy said on Thursday, as quoted by tempo.co.
Bareskrim investigators also questioned the janitor on Tuesday and Wednesday as a witness in the fire case.
Read also: Graft suspect's office destroyed in AGO blaze
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Arteria Dahlan raised suspicions about the janitor’s bank account during a meeting between House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs and Attorney General ST Burhanuddin.
A fire broke out on the sixth floor of the AGO building on Aug. 22 at 6:15 p.m. It lasted for about 10 hours and engulfed the entire structure.
Although AGO officials said vital case records were out of harm’s way, some saw the fire as an attack on the prosecutors who were leading investigations into some of the nation’s largest graft cases.
On Sept. 17, Bareskrim concluded that the fire was caused by an open flame rather than an electrical short circuit, leading investigators to conclude that there may have been criminal factors behind the fire.
The police have questioned more than 130 witnesses in the investigation, including janitors, office clerks and other AGO employees. (aly)
