Federal Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) chief Amar Singh has denied the allegation that police stole RM43.3 million during raids at Pavilion Residences in Kuala Lumpur.

The high-end units targetted during the May raids were linked to former premier Najib Abdul Razak.

Amar also trained his guns on UK-based blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who made the allegation, accusing the latter of acting more like a mercenary than an investigative journalist.

"He actually came with frivolous and vexatious claims against the police, and I will not stand quiet receiving such accusations because that is such a baseless accusation altogether.

"He made a baseless accusation against the police. If he has got such credible information with him stating that indeed RM43 million was stolen, please lodge a report in Malaysia.

"Don't hide behind the cyber curtain," he told a press conference at the CCID headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.

Raja Petra had been referring to a writ of summons filed by Umno in the High Court last week, which claimed that the police seized RM160 million from Pavilion Residences, instead of RM116.7 million as announced by the police.

As such, Umno had claimed that RM43.3 million went missing during the police raid.

Discrepancies explained

Amar reiterated that the amount of cash in 26 currencies seized from the units in May was RM114 million.

"I would like to confirm 100 percent that the total amount recovered was RM114 million which was in 26 currencies," he said.

Amar said that Raja Petra had seized upon the discrepancy between two sums of money the police said it had confiscated from Najib-linked residences.

The confiscations had been announced by Amar in two different press conferences, held on May 25 and June 28 respectively. 

"Raja Petra used the basis that on May 25, I stated there was RM114 million seized. Subsequently, he said that on June 28, I said there was RM116 million seized. 

"Using this discrepancy, he said the police are not sure with the figure," Amar said.

He explained that the RM114 million was seized during a raid on May 17.

The money was found in one of three premises at Pavilion Residences.

"Subsequent to that, on June 28, I gave another press conference after we finished counting all exhibits and conducted other raids - (on) six premises all in. 

"I mentioned the total amount is RM116 million. RM114 million in Pavilion Residences, while the remainder came from Najib's premise at Jalan Duta."

Amar said that Raja Petra's accusation was baseless as it would be impossible to steal such a substantial amount of money during the raids.

"To accommodate RM43 million, you need 10 to 13 bags. With 40 policemen at the scene, a hundred CCTVs, and another 50 reporters waiting outside, and the only entrance is through the lift and the lobby, there's no way that money could be stolen out of the premise."

He theorised that the allegedly missing sum "would have been stolen by the people whom they employed to transfer the money to the premise". 

He said that police knew, based on evidence, that a sum of money had been moved into the premise two days after the election by 30 individuals.