JOHOR BARU, MALAYSIA - A 29-year-old engineer claimed that his PDA phone was stolen at the state police headquarters.

A.P. Gobala Khirushnan went to the front counter to collect a receipt for his traffic summons at about 10.30am on June 3.

He left after taking the receipt but soon realised he had left his D810 PDA at the counter. When he went back, the phone was missing.

Gobala Khirushnan said he asked a policewoman - one of two police personnel on duty - but she told him that the phone was with another policeman.

'I waited for the other policeman for 10 minutes but when I met him, he told me that he did not know anything about the phone.

'He suggested that I could have dropped it somewhere,' he said, adding that he went back to the same counter four times in the past week but failed to get his phone back.

Gobala Khirushnan said his telecommunication provider activated his phone's anti-theft system the same day.

'It showed that someone was using my phone with another number. I hope the police will investigate the matter,' he said during a press conference organised by state DAP chairman Dr Boo Cheng Hau.

Gobala Khirushnan has since lodged two police reports at the central police station and Nusajaya.

When contacted, Johor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff described the allegation as serious and said he would get to the bottom of it.

'Rest assured that I will investigate the matter,' he said.