Central Java Police Investigate Allegations Of Embezzlement Of Hajj Funds In Semarang

Director of the General Criminal Investigation of the Central Java Police, Kombes Djuhandani. ANTARA/IC Senjaya

SEMARANG - Central Java Police are investigating the embezzlement of funds from a pilgrimage account at a private bank in Semarang City with a total loss of Rp. 918 million, which was allegedly committed by an employee of the financial institution.

Director of the General Criminal Investigation of the Central Java Police, Kombes Djuhandani, confirmed the investigation into the alleged crime that harmed dozens of pilgrims.

According to him, the chronology of the alleged crime began when a private bank in collaboration with the Ministry of Religion opened a Hajj registration service at a mall in Semarang City.

The alleged reporter with the initials AA, he said, was a marketing staff on duty at the location.

Through the Hajj registration service at the mall, 36 people registered with the fee paid between Rp. 25 million to Rp. 25.5 million per person.

Suspicion, he said, arose when customers were asked to pay the hajj fee of Rp. 11 million per person because there was a quota of seats that would be dispatched in the next 5 years.

Suspicious customers, he continued, then went to the bank in question to confirm the correctness of the fees to be paid.

"When I checked with the bank, it turned out that the reported person had not come to work for a week for no apparent reason," he said as quoted by Antara, Friday, March 11.

The perpetrator, according to him, is suspected of not having deposited the funds for the pilgrimage costs of these customers into the bank's treasury.

The Central Java Police are still hunting for the perpetrators who are thought to have fled outside Java.