TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Umrah tour agency First Travel owners Andika Surahman and Anniesa Devitasari Hasibuan have been named as suspects over Hajj and Umrah scam.
“We have conducted an interrogation. Yesterday saw arrests of two individuals, namely the CEO of PT First Travel, Andika Surahman and Anniesa Devitasari Hasibuan. They are a married couple,” the National Police General Crime Investigation Unit director Brig. Gen. Herry Rudolf Nahak said yesterday, August 10, at his office.
According to him, investigators have collected some evidence before naming them as suspects. The latter will be detained for twenty days. “It may be extended,” he said.
The police will launch a further investigation, which includes a search at the Umrah travel agency's office on Jalan T.B. Simatupang, South Jakarta, and the suspects’ houses.
The First Travel agency has been mired in a serious problem. The Religious Affairs Ministry has slapped an administrative sanction on it in the form of cancellation of the operating permit for violating the law on hajj administration.
The police have charged the suspects under Article 372 and 378 of the Criminal Code on embezzlement and fraud. “We may extend it to the article on money laundering,” he said.
ARKHELAUS W.