Police are not practising double standards with regard to investigations under the Sedition Act, insists Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar.

Khalid said the police would be recording a statement from Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamid, who oversees the men in blue.

"When there is an offence committed, an investigation will be launched, and the process is the same.

"Whoever that we need to record statements from, we will call them, and their statements will be recorded.

"It is immaterial if he is a minister, or whoever, even myself," Khalid told reporters today.

"We will conduct investigation when a report is lodged. As to how the investigation is being carried out, it is up to the police," he added.

DAP has filed a police report against Zahid over his remarks during the recent Pengkalan Kubor by-election.

The minister said DAP threw stones at the Raja Muda (Perak regent) and the his car during a demonstration near Kuala Kangsar during the Perak constitutional crisis in 2009, which the opposition party claimed was baseless.

Since then, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang repeatedly asked if the police would initiate a probe against the minister within 24 hours, in line with Zahid's pledge that investigations into sedition cases would commence in that period.

However, according to Malay Mail Online, the authorities are currently investigating the case for criminal defamation under Section 500 of the Penal Code.

'Unfair accusations'

Khalid also denied that the police are siding the BN or Umno when it came to sedition.

"These accusations are unfair. Look what happened previously, were there selective prosecutions? We don't investigate and prosecute just one side," he said in response to a question pertaining to a police report on PJU Umno deputy chief Azli Mohemed Saad's remark on vernacular schools.

Asked why it has been classified as a civil case rather than one of sedition, he said he didn't know the details but would look into it.

According to the New Straits Times, Azli had called for the Umno general assembly to discuss abolishing the Chinese vernacular school system as it purportedly promotes racism and anti-establishment sentiments.

MCA then lodged a police report demanding the authorities probe him for sedition.

The police, however, has classified the matter as a civil case.


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