KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor was arrested in the wee hours of Tuesday (July 18) as he did not answer multiple phone calls from the police, says Tan Sri Razarudin Husain.
The Inspector-General of Police said police made multiple attempts to contact him and his special officers to inform him of the impending charges at the Selayang Court.
"We called him and his political secretary but the calls were rejected.
"Initially, we contacted Kedah police to track him down and we were informed that he was not in the state.
"Based on further checks, he was supposed to make appear on Astro Awani at 10pm last night but he was a no-show there too.
"We also tried to contact him yesterday (July 17) evening to inform him about the charges but all our calls were rejected," he told reporters at Bukit Aman on Tuesday (July 18).
He said the issue Muhammad Sanusi raised about not being told of the charges arose because he refused to pick up his phone.
"Since we could not reach him, we did a search and found him at 2.30am in Mont Kiara.
"He was arrested to ensure that he attended court to hear the charges against him," he said.
Razarudin added that under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act, which is a seizable offence, police could conduct arrests (without a warrant) as and when it was necessary.
"Police looked at all aspects when conducting the probe, including the fact that the Selangor Royal Council was also not happy about the issue.
"We also looked at whether it could lead to bringing insult, hate and raising feelings of disloyalty to the Royal Institution.
"If we had let it be, all nine Rulers would have been insulted," he said.
When asked for an update on the investigations into cases involving DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng and PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, Razarudin said those cases were different as they did not touch on the royal institution.
"We have completed at least 70% of our investigations into both cases and referred the investigation papers to the Attorney General's Chambers on Monday.
"There are further investigations needed, especially on the aspects of data preservation and forensics," he said.
