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Two law enforcement institutions who have been at each others throats in a battle that has both angered and riveted the nation, on Tuesday announced they would launch a joint investigation into a businessman at the core of their dispute.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police — known respectively as the gecko and crocodile — were now jointly investigating Anggodo Widjojo.

Anggodo came under the spotlight after his telephone conversations with various people, including police and prosecutors, were wiretapped by the KPK, which played them publicly in the Constitutional Court on Nov. 3.

The conversation pointed to a plot to fabricate charges against KPK deputy chairmen Bibit Samad Rianto and Chandra M. Hamzah. The two have since been suspended from their positions and may face charges of extortion and abuse of power.

On Tuesday, a day after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the police and investigators should drop the investigation, National Police deputy chief detective Insp. Gen. Dikdik Mulyana Arif Mansur visited the KPK office in South Jakarta and met with the body’s deputy on corruption investigation and prosecution, Ade Rahardja.

“We are working alongside the KPK because they probably have more preliminary evidence in the case,” Dikdik said. “We will give them full access to Anggodo for questioning. If the KPK wants to make an arrest, we will lead them to [him].”

Despite what most see as overwhelming evidence to charge Anggodo with attempted bribery and obstruction of justice, the police have been reluctant to do so and had even put the businessman under police protection.

KPK spokesman Johan Budi confirmed that the National Police had requested a joint operation against Anggodo and said that the initiative came from the police.

“Cooperation is the first step towards the pursuit of the case but we still don’t know what form the cooperation will take,” he said.

“The KPK, however, will only investigate based on its jurisdiction, we will coordinate what falls into acts of corruption and what falls into general crimes.”

Dikdik said that police would meet again with the KPK today. “Members of our investigation team will work alongside several of the police’s technical experts. We will listen to the recordings together because the KPK has the original,” the police officer said.

He was referring to the wiretapped conversations now in the hands of the KPK.

When asked about who would lead the investigation, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said it depended on further developments. “We shall see which institution has the most evidence,” he said.