The Selangor MACC office was located on the 14th floor of commercial tower Plaza Masalam when Teoh was found dead on the fifth floor service corridor on July 16, 2009.
The discrepancy in time was raised by Bar Council lawyer Cheow Wee when examining Klang MACC assistant enforcement officer Zukefly Aziz, who is the RCI's 55th witness.
Cheow said the Bar Council noted from the CCTV recordings that Zukefly left the office at 6.59am on July 16, 2009, contradicting his earlier statement to the police that he left at 3.15am that day.
He compared the recording with the police statement recently and spotted the discrepancy, Cheow said.
Went home after clocking in
Zulkefly said he did not know about the CCTV recording depicting him leaving the building later.
Cheow: Why did you return to your (Klang) office at 10am on July 16 for only two hours? Then you went home after that. Were you scared?
Zulkefly: Actually, I didn't go back to the office that day.
Following this, some in the public gallery expressed surprised because Zulkefly had testified yesterday he went to his office on July 16, 2009 to report for work.
Cheow: Are you changing your evidence now?
Zulkefly: That's the truth. I returned to my office to punch in for work at 7am, but went straight home. I was at home the whole day and did not punch out. I was too tired and took the opportunity to rest (at home) as the operation was going round-the-clock.
The witness said he did not inform his superiors about his decision to return home.
RCI panel calls officer a 'suspect'
The revelation led into the inquiry turning into an interrogation session, with all five RCI panel members joining Cheow in questioning Zulkefly.
"Now, you have become the suspect in a death case... you are now a suspect. Later, police can open the investigation, I think the police have not finished their investigation," rapped RCI chairperson Justice James Foong.
"Now you know the difference between witness and suspect?"
Zukefly argued that it was an unintentional mistake. He realised the mistake a week after giving the statement (to police), but did not rectify it because he thought it was a trivial matter.
However, Foong was clearly unconvinced and queried, "Was there anything that happened between 3am and 6am? Why did you lie?"
"If the time difference is small, it may be a mistake. If the CCTV did not capture you, we wouldn't know about it."
Zulkefly: I didn't see anything
Another panel member, former Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman, asked: "Are you involved in the case? What have you seen?"
After a short silence, Zulkefly maintained his denial and answered, "I did not see anything, there was nothing that happened".
The 44-year-old officer joined MACC in 1991. On July 15, 2009, he was assigned to collect documents from Meritlink, a company owned by the wife of Kajang councillor Tan Boon Wah, who was one of the witnesses in the investigation.
According to Zukefly, he took Tan to a small room in the Selangor MACC office before going to the Klang MACC office to collect his car. He returned to the Selangor MACC office between 11pm and midnight.
The next witness from the MACC, Mohd Yusmizan Mohd Yusof, said he had sent a text message to console his good friend and fellow officer, Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yusof, for being one of the suspects leading to Teoh's death.
“There was suggestion that Mohd Ashraf had held the belt of someone and put him near the window on the 14th floor. There was a lot of pressure on him, and I sent an short SMS to console him,” he said.
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