BANGI: The Bandar Baru Bangi magistrates' court today acquitted a police corporal of two charges of forging travel allowance claim documents totalling RM3,000.
Magistrate Saira Banu Ashrof Raja ruled the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against Afiq Khalid, 34, who was based at the General Operations Force's (GOF) 4th Battalion in Semenyih.
In her ruling at the close of the prosecution's case, Saira said the prosecution relied entirely on circumstantial evidence to link Afiq to the alleged offences but there were gaps in the evidence.
"None of the prosecution witnesses saw or could confirm that the accused himself had submitted the claim documents at the office. Moreover, no acknowledgement of receipt stamp was provided," she said.
She said other employees also had access to the digital system used by the battalion's financial unit, which could not identify the person who had entered the claim details.
"The investigating officer admitted in court that he did not investigate who actually entered the claims into the system and did not investigate the role of other employees in the financial unit who had access to the system," she said.
The magistrate also found the prosecution had failed to prove that the signatures on the forms belonged to Afiq, noting that no expert report had been produced to establish this.
She said the possibility that someone had entered or manipulated the data without Afiq's knowledge could not be ruled out, and the benefit of the doubt had to be given to him.
Afiq had been suspended from duty since June 2024, following the charges.
On the first charge, he was accused of using a travel allowance claim document for June 2020 amounting to RM1,780, covering meal, daily and lodging allowances.
On the second charge, he was accused of committing a similar offence using a claim document for January 2020 amounting to RM1,220 at the finance division of the 4th Battalion of the GOF in Semenyih.
The charges were brought under Section 471 of the Penal Code, which is punishable under Section 465 of the same code.
Deputy public prosecutor Nurul Atiqah Alias handled the prosecution, while the accused was represented by lawyers Khairul Naim Rafidi and Mariani Tan.