NTB Police Admits Continue To Monitor But Can't Hold 2 Suspects Of Illegal Water Drilling Gili Trawangan Involving Provincial Government BUMDs

The Ditreskrimsus building of the NTB Police. (ANTARA-Dhimas B.P.)

The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Regional Police said they did not detain two suspects in the case of illegal or landwater drilling in the Gili Trawangan tourist area involving regional-owned enterprises (BUMD) of the NTB Provincial Government (Pemprov).

Despite demiikian, the NTB Police confirmed that they would continue to monitor the whereabouts of the two suspects, namely the Director of PT Berkat Air Laut (BAL) with the initials WJM from Switzerland and the Director of PT Gerbang NTB Emas (GNE) with the initials SH.

"Indeed, we have not yet detained them, but we are still monitoring their whereabouts," said Head of Sub-Directorate IV for Certain Crimes of Criminal Investigation at the NTB Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner of Police I Gede Harimbawa in Mataram, NTB, Thursday, May 2, confiscated by Antara.

For the whereabouts of WJM, it was observed that in Bali the office was in Gili Trawangan. According to Gede, WJM in this case is cooperative and often goes back and forth to Mataram.

Meanwhile, the suspect SH was observed carrying out the Umrah pilgrimage. Due to the consideration of the position, he said, the NTB Police investigators postponed the implementation of phase two or the transfer of suspects and evidence to the public prosecutor.

"What is clear is that we will continue to monitor the suspect's whereabouts, maybe in mid-May we will stage two," he said.

The groundwater drilling activity for the provision of clean water in Gili Trawangan was carried out by PT BAL in collaboration with the BUMD owned by the NTB Provincial Government, namely PT GNE. The two companies are registered to cooperate in 2022.

However, from the results of the investigation by the NTB Police, it was found that the activity of providing clean water through groundwater drilling did not have a permit from the local government.

This can be seen from the local government's decision in mid-December 2022 which officially stopped PT BAL's activities with PT GNE in providing clean water on Gili Trawangan.

Harimbawa emphasized that the unlawful act in this activity had also been strengthened by the testimony of criminal and geological experts.

By finding the criminal evidence of this case, investigators named both of them as suspects by applying the suspicion of Article 70 letter D in conjunction with Article 49 paragraph (2) of Law Number 6 of 2023 concerning Stipulation of Government Regulations in Lieu of Law Number 2 of 2022 concerning Job Creation and/or Article 68 letters A and B as well as Article 69 letters A and B of Law Number 17 of 2019 concerning Water Resources in conjunction with Article 56 of the 2nd Criminal Code.