Malaysian police to intensify operations against sale of fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates

KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) will intensify operations and monitoring in tracking down parties involved in selling fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates.

Inspector-General of Police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said he did not rule out the possibility that such syndicates existed in other states besides Terengganu, where a doctor suspected of issuing fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates was arrested on Saturday. 

“As such, I have instructed heads of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in the states, through the Bukit Aman CID director and the Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director, to conduct intelligence work."

"This is to detect whether there are similar things (sale of fake vaccination certificates) happening in other places," he said after attending an education and early skills programme for autistic children at the Kuala Lumpur Police Training Centre on Wednesday (Jan 12). 

Acryl Sani said so far, the police had only detected the case in Marang, Terengganu.

The police are investigating to see if there are similar cases in other states, he added.

He said the police viewed the case seriously.

“PDRM does not want to see the government's efforts and measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to be hampered because of the actions of some parties which could threaten the country's image," he added.

On Monday, Terengganu police chief Rohaimi Md Isa confirmed that a 51-year-old doctor was arrested at his clinic in a raid that was jointly carried out with the Terengganu Health Department, following complaints from the public.