Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department T Murugiah today dismissed as untrue media reports that the police had conducted a search of his office in connection with the investigation into the so-called Banting murders.

He said the reports, which said the police had also searched his family clinic, were founded purely on rumours.

NONE He also said that inspector-general of police Ismail Omar himself had informed him that he had not made any statement on police having searched his office and the clinic.

"Last night, Ismail spoke to me over the telephone twice and denied that he had issued such a statement," he said in reference to the reports by the media, including Bernama , on the matter.

Murugiah ( left ) said he had to make the clarification because the media reports indicated that the police had actually searched his office, and he did not want the inaccurate reports to cause any misunderstanding between him and the people.

Reporters had asked Ismail yesterday to comment on rumours that police had searched Murugiah's office and his family's clinic in connection with the murders.

Eight detained

Millionaire Sosilawati Lawiya, 47, ( below ) founder of the Nouvelle Visages beauty products, her driver Kamaruddin Shamsudin, 44, lawyer Ahmad Kamil Abdul Karim, 32, and CIMB Bank officer Noorhisham Mohammad, 38, were reported missing on Aug 30 after they had gone to Banting over a land deal.

NONE Police found out that the four had been killed, their bodies burnt and the ashes thrown into a river near Ladang Gadong near Banting. Police have picked up eight people, two of them lawyers, to assist in the investigations into the murders.

Murugiah reiterated that he had nothing to do with a lawyer who was the prime suspect in the case.

"I ask the people not to misinterpret anything. The prime suspect has nothing to do with me. I only met him on Sept 8 at a function which I attended as a deputy minister," he said.

SMS circulated

Murugiah also said that he would lodge a police report to determine who had started the rumour that his office was searched by the police.

On Friday, the deputy minister lodged a police report over an SMS linking him to the lawyer suspect in the high-profile murder case.

- Bernama