(AFP) The police have begun an investigation into a senior judge's disclosure that he was pressured by his superior to drop a politically sensitive case, reports said today.

High Court judge Muhammad Kamil Awang sparked a furore last week when he said he had been ordered by a superior in 1999 to drop a case in Sabah.

The judge went ahead and ordered a member of the ruling coalition to vacate his seat in the Sabah state assembly after ruling that he won it with the help of "phantom voters".

Muhammad Kamil has declined to name the other judge but indicated it was one of his three superiors at the time - Chief Justice Eusoff Chin, Court of Appeal president Lamin Yunus or Chong Siew Fai, the chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak states.

All three are now retired.

According to the New Straits Times , Muhammad Kamil was likely to be interviewed by police over the next two days following the start of the investigation.

Lamin has denied any involvement while Chong declined to comment.

The daily said Eusoff had acknowledged telephoning Muhammad Kamil, but denied telling him to strike out the petitions by two candidates who were defeated in the Sabah state election.

"How can I give such an instruction when I don't know the detailed facts of the case?" Eusoff told the newspaper.

"I called him to expedite the case, he was late and other judges had already finished their cases...It's normal for us to call judges when they are slow."

Fake identity cards

Muhammad Kamil has said he named the caller in a letter to Chief Justice Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, who was appointed in December, and would leave it to his boss to decide on further action.

He said other judges in Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak had told him they came under similar pressure.

Mohamed Dzaiddin was also quoted by the daily as saying that he would await the outcome of the police probe.

Following Muhammad Kamil's June 8 ruling, a by-election must be held in the Sabah constituency of Likas within 60 days.

The Election Commission has yet to fix a date but was quoted by the newspaper as saying that 27,000 phantom names would be struck off the electoral roll for Sabah state.

Commission chairman Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said fake identity cards were sold openly in Sabah to non-citizens and that no real efforts were made to check voters' credentials.

Sabah's population of about three million includes an estimated 500,000 immigrants, mainly from neighbouring Indonesia and the Philippines.