Mohammad Razin (centre) at the press conference.
SANDAKAN: The National Registration Department (NRD) here has detained an agent allegedly active in falsifying identification documents in the east coast of Sabah.
The arrest of a 52-year-old Malaysian woman who acted as an agent targeting Pakistanis, Filipinos and Indonesians as the main customers is expected to break the syndicate’s network in the state.
An integrated operation led by NRD director general Dato’ Mohammad Razin Abdullah along with the police and Immigration Department was carried out around 2am on Jan 31 at SEDCO industrial area, Mile 2.5 here.
Mohammad Razin said the operation was carried out in order to target forgery agent and illegal immigrants, he said at a press conference here yesterday.
“We had confiscated the woman’s bank account book that has huge transactions involving RM60,000 and RM30,000. The total amount is still under investigation as we need to check with the bank authority.
“Apart from the agent, we also arrested an illegal immigrant suspected to have committed various offences under our legislation.
“The NRD will continue to carry out initiatives and enforcement activities to ensure the integrity of the MyKad document, that is, the most basic document in the country is not abused by irresponsible persons.
“Further investigation by the NRD will be implemented to ensure such syndicate’s active network in Sabah will be prevented,” he said.
Meanwhile, in other separate operation held in Tawau and surrounding areas on Jan 26, Mohammad Razin said the NRD in Putrajaya arrested 11 male and 10 female suspects for various offences such as abusing someone’s identification document, giving false information related to identity card and using someone else’s identity card.
He said all those arrested had been investigated under the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amendment 2007) for using fake MyKad and someone’s else MyKad which carries a jail term of not over three years or fine not exceeding RM20,000 or both upon conviction.
Four suspects had been charged, he said, adding that the prosecutions had been held in three different locations, namely Tawau, Lahad Datu and Semporna.
Mohd Razin stressed that the NRD would strive to combat and would not compromise with forgery activities.
“I believe there is a syndicate involved and it is our effort to curb the production of fake documents.
“From these operations, there are more integrated operation series to combat larger forgery syndicates involved in death certificate, birth certificate or even marriage certificate,” he said.
The press conference was also attended by director of Investigation and Enforcement Putrajaya, Mohamad Yusri Hashim, State NRD director Dato’ Ismail Ahmad and Sandakan Registration Department office head Dausipe Joeseph Garudin.