IT was very wrong of the East Java Police Chief to stop the investigation into the Lapindo mudflow case. His action leaves the legal status regarding the hot mudflow at the PT Lapindo Brantas drilling site at Porong, Sidoarjo, in limbo. It will now be more difficult to uncover the cause of the uncontrolled outflow from the gas drilling.

This erroneous step turns out to have come out of strange considerations. The East Java Police concluded that