‘Golden statue’ is a body

By RASHITHA A. HAMID

KUALA LUMPUR: A man who thought he was carrying a bag with a golden statue inside re-ceived a shock when he found that he was actually carrying the body of a dead man.

The man in his 30s, had been asked to dispose of the bag by a woman who had claimed that the bag contained a stolen golden statue. She had promised to pay him RM100 to dispose the luggage.

Ampang OCPD Asst Comm Abdul Jalil Hassan said the man had come from Penang to help the woman. He collected the “golden statue” from the woman’s apartment in Pandan Mewah, Ampang and threw it in a jungle along the Karak Highway on Thursday without even opening it.

However, after considering that it was a statue made of gold, the man decided to return to the jungle at about 5pm on the same evening to collect it and bring it back with him to Penang.

It was then that he opened the bag and found the body, believed to be that of the woman’s husband.

The man, who was frightened over the discovery, fled the scene and only lodged a police report on Saturday at the Bentong police station after his friend advised him to do so.

ACP Abdul Jalil said the Pandan Mewah apartment was empty when police went there on Saturday.

A check with the Immigration Department found that the woman had returned to India with her eight-year-old daughter on Friday, a day after the body was disposed of.

“We are waiting for a post-mortem report to ascertain if the body is the woman’s husband,” he added.