KUALA LUMPUR: The police are scouring a lake in the Mines area, next to the Besraya Highway here, to locate a firearm which was used to gun down Arab-Malaysia Bank (AmBank) founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi in July.
The police believe that a suspect in the killing of the septuagenarian had disposed the weapon in the lake to avoid detection by the authorities.
Over the past two days, scuba divers had tried to locate the firearm at a depth of 10 metres.
They were part of a police team which also comprised members of a forensic unit and the General Operations Force.
According to a Bernama observation about 1.20pm yesterday, the suspect in Hussain’s murder was seen under police escort while the divers went about their task at the lake. The 44-year-old man was dressed in orange lock-up clothes.
“We believe the firearm which was used by the suspect was dumped in the area,” said Kuala Lumpur serious crime investigation division (D9) officer Supt Yahya Abdul Rahman when contacted by Bernama yesterday.
The operation headed by Kuala Lumpur CID deputy chief ACP Khairy Ahrasa began at 10am, with the deployment of 30 policemen from the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah said, although the search drew a nil, the operation to find the firearm would continue today, using imaging equipment such as a weapon scanner.
Last Sunday, the suspect was nabbed, together with two accomplices, in a raid at 12.30am on a house in Taiping, Perak. They have been remanded to facilitate investigations.
Hussain, 75, was killed while a woman, believed to be his wife, was injured when a gunman fired shots at close range near a parking lot, moments after the couple emerged from the Kuan Yin Temple in Lorong Ceylon here on July 29. — Bernama