SHAH ALAM, Nov 21 — Selangor police have received 72 false reports since January until yesterday which have affected their task of enforcing the movement control order (MCO) and conditional movement control order (CMCO) in the state.
Their ‘Special Op Covid-19’ spokesman, ACP Muhammad Yazid Muhammad Yew said out of that total, 57 cases related to mugging, accidents (10), theft (three), and a false report each on kidnapping and other issues.
He said the total number received was an increase from 21 false reports lodged last year.
The investigations revealed that most of the individuals filed false reports that they were mugged or victims of snatch theft to avoid paying fines for losing their identity cards.
“We therefore advise the public not to make false reports as this will only disrupt the planning and duties of the police in enforcing the CMCO to curb the spread of Covid-19, just to investigate crimes that did not happen,” he said at a news conference, here, yesterday.
Muhammad Yazid stressed that any individual who filed a false report would be investigated under Section 182 of the Penal Code and could be jailed for up to six months or fined not exceeding RM2,000 or both, if found guilty.
On a separate matter, he said 58 online fraud cases involving about RM524,000 were recorded during the enforcement of the CMCO between October 14 and November 19.
“Although shopping online is easy, the public must be aware and cautious of the authenticity of websites to avoid being cheated.
On inter-state travel, Muhammad Yazid said 66,776 applications were received since October 14, with the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters receiving 37,753, the highest number.
— Bernama
