GEORGE TOWN, March 31 — The initial investigating officer into the missing person case of Annapuranee Jenkins admitted in the Coroner’s Court that he did not investigate her alleged kidnapping despite it being mentioned in the missing persons report lodged by her husband.
Zali Hanapi, 61, now a retired policeman, told the court he did not investigate Francis James Jenkins’ claims in his police report that Annapuranee had called him to say she was being held by two unidentified Ukrainians and that they had asked for her international passport.
He also admitted that at that point, he did not officially record a statement from Francis.
“I did not record his statement because I find the complainant was lying in his report,” he said when testifying in the inquest into the death of Annapuranee this afternoon.
When asked why he believed Francis was lying in his report, Zali said it was because Annapuranee’s phone was found inside her luggage in the hotel room.
“Her phone is in the hotel room so he could not have received a call from her,” he said.
Penang state prosecution office director Datuk Khairul Annuar Abd Halim then asked if he checked the phone number mentioned in the police report by Francis, he said he did send an application to telecommunications companies — Maxis, Digi and Celcom — to check on the number.
“I only received verbal replies from the telco companies that there were no numbers registered under Annapuranee’s name,” he said
In the report, Francis had stated that he received a call at about 5.22pm from his wife, from the number 04-31232617, saying she was being held by two unidentified Ukrainians and they asked for her international passport.
Zali said he did not pursue further details from the telco companies because it was not important.
“I don’t believe there were any criminal elements to her disappearance or that she was kidnapped,” he said.
He said he believed this because Annapuranee had written in her notebook that she has no interest to return to Australia.
“Also, she is an elderly person, not a person of status and without any possessions so there were no motives for her to be kidnapped,” he said.
He also believed that Annapuranee could have been staying with her Malaysian relatives or at a religious organisation.
“We checked several religious places and the homes of her relatives and friends here but we did not find anything,” he said.
He said he had also applied to Interpol to check if Annapuranee had left Malaysia and there were no records of her ever leaving the country after she went missing.
He said it was later that he tried to record a statement from Francis after he had returned to Australia.
“That was when I found out he was ill and based on information from Interpol, he had brain cancer,” he said.
Zali also revealed that he held four meetings with Annapuranee’s son, Gregory Jenkins, and also with the representative from the Australian High Commission to talk about his investigation into Annapuranee’s case.
When Zali failed to give accurate details of the four meetings, Khairul Annuar asked that he prepare and furnish the minutes of the respective meetings.
Khairul then asked Coroner Norsalha Hamzah to adjourn the inquest hearing to another date to give Zali time to prepare the necessary documents.
He also asked that Zali provide his investigation diary of the case in the next hearing.
Annapuranee went to Goh Dental clinic and was on the way to visit her mother at the Little Sisters of the Poor before she disappeared on December 13, 2017.
Her remains and belongings were found on June 24, 2020 at a construction site near where she was last seen.
Annapuranee’s case caught the attention of the South Australian government when a member of the legislative council, Frank Pangallo, took up the case on behalf of the Jenkins family last year.
Pangallo said the South Australian Parliament is closely monitoring the inquest.
The inquest hearing will continue on June 7.
