[Anchor]

The special police investigation team looking into allegations of misconduct in the Jang Yoon-gi case has launched raids on the initial investigation command, including the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner. The investigation appears to be expanding to determine whether there was any involvement from higher-ups.

Reporter An Huijae has the story.

[Reporter]

The special investigation team began a raid on the office of Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency Commissioner Kim Young-geun at 6:00 a.m. today (July 11).

A total of seven locations were subject to the search, including the office of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station Chief and the detective division office.

Before Jang Yoon-gi was referred to the prosecution under arrest for murder, the special investigation team discovered that suggestions had been made within the Gwangsan Police Station investigation team to apply charges of rape and murder. However, they found that the team leader, identified as Inspector A, rejected the suggestion, questioning whether it could be proven with circumstantial evidence alone.

The special investigation team suspects higher-level involvement, as they believe Inspector A, who claims to have no personal connection to Jang Yoon-gi's father, would not have had sufficient motive to ignore the team's internal consensus.

After conducting the first interrogation yesterday of Inspector A, who was arrested on July 8 on charges of destroying evidence, the special investigation team launched a large-scale effort to secure data targeting the investigation command just one day later.

A police official told SBS, "This is a search and seizure related to the charges against Team Leader A, and there are no additional individuals booked at this time."

The police plan to verify whether there were any signs of higher-level involvement based on meeting materials and report records from the initial investigation secured through the raids.

(Video Editing: So Ji-hye)