IGP says Malaysia averaging five murders a week
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — The Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) recorded an average of five murder cases a week between 2021 and 2023, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain said.
Utusan Malaysia reported Razarudin as saying that a total of 741 murder cases were reported in that three-year span.
“Investigations found that among the highest identified motives in murder cases during the same period were disputes or misunderstandings, jealousy, intoxication, revenge, and debt,” he was quoted as saying.
He said that a total of 1,509 individuals — comprising 1,332 men and 177 women — were arrested for involvement in murder during the period.
Razarudin said the 239 murders in 2021, 241 in 2022, and 261 in 2023 indicated a consistent increase over the years.
“Based on the recorded cases, there were no serial murder cases reported; instead, investigations found that all of these cases happened at random,” he added.
He mentioned that disputes and misunderstandings were the highest contributing factors to murder cases, with 302 cases recorded during that period, followed by unknown reasons (148 cases).
“In addition, jealousy was a factor in 56 murders, followed by intoxication (51 cases), revenge (43 cases), robbery (39 cases) and abuse or debt (31 cases each).
“Negligence leading to murder happened in 14 cases, in addition to mental instability (13 cases), rape (10 cases), extortion (seven cases), organised crime (four cases), abduction (three cases) and snatching (one case),” he said.
Razarudin said Malays made up the most victims, at 172 during the period, followed by Chinese (141), Indians (131), Bumiputeras from Sabah and Sarawak (62), and foreigners (202), with the remaining 45 victims being of undetermined ethnicities.
“In 2021, 558 arrests were made, followed by 2022 (477 arrests) and 2023 (474 arrests),” he added.
