The special police team set up to investigate the recent raid o­n Palm Court Condominium in Kuala Lumpur has completed its report o­n schedule.

A police officer, who spoke to malaysiakini this morning o­n condition of annonymity, said the report was submitted to the Home Ministry yesterday, as instructed by acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. ( photo )

Up to Home Ministry

The officer said the report was ready o­n Monday, but declined to elaborate o­n the findings.

It will now be up to the Home Ministry to study the findings and respond to the queries of the Indian government, which has expressed strong disapproval of the alleged police actions against its nationals.

On March 9, more than 150 Indian nationals employed by local IT firms were arrested at the condominium in Brickfields. They were held for over 10 hours while their travel documents were being verified.

Many of those detained complained of abuse at the hands of the police, as well as that their documents were defaced during the 'verification' process. A group later lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.

In the wake of outrage the incident caused in India and locally, Abdullah directed Inspector-General of Police Norian Mai to personally took into the matter and submit a report to him within a week.

Procedures not clear

The Indian nationals involved had raised several issues. Among these were why the police had been unable to verify the authenticity of their work permits o­n the spot and why immigration officers had not been present to assist the process.

Questioned about normal police procedure in immigration-related raids, the police officer said that, for "urgent operations", the police are generally accompanied by enforcement officers from the immigration department.

However, he declined to comment o­n why immigration officers were not present during the Palm Court raid to check the foreigners' visas.

When contacted last week, Immigration Department public relations officer Ahmad Shukri Abd Majid said that, although the department's officers had previously participated o­n similar exercises, he too was uncertain as to why the police had conducted the Palm Court raid o­n their own.

"The operation was carried out by the police...they were not joined by immigration officers although they called us (after arresting the Indian nationals) to do some checking (of visas)," he said.

He had declined to elaborate, saying the matter would have to wait until the completion of the internal investigation by the police.

Retaliatory measures

The Malaysian government had been under increasing pressure from India to deal with the matter and to respond to two diplomatic protests issued in the days following the incident.

In its latest show of displeasure, the Indian government ordered its national hockey team o­n Monday to pull out from participating in the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament, scheduled to take place from March 22-28 in Perak.

Last week, New Delhi was also said to have called off a proposed visit by Health Minister Chua Jui Ming to India's capital city.

Other retaliatory measures threatened were to reconsider tariff concessions o­n Malaysian palm oil and a civil aviation treaty between the two countries which may affect Malaysia Airlines' operations.