Badrul Amin denies Kuantan 'khalwat' arrest

Selangor MB's office communications director Badrul Amin Bahrom has reportedly denied that he was arrested for 'khalwat' or close proximity, while at a hotel in Balok, Kuantan, earlier today.

"The statement by the Pahang Islamic Religious Department deputy director ( Mohd Ghazali Abdul Aziz) that I was arrested by JAIP officers while in close proximity is totally false," he asserted in a statement.

"I believe that this incident is a planned attempt to trap and slander me. I am only called in to assist in JAIP investigations into the matter on February 27. I shall attend with my lawyer to cooperate fully with the investigation," explained the Sabak Bernam PKR branch chief.

He explained that while he was at the hotel for the PKR leaders' retreat he was contacted by a woman, from a family he was counseling for domestic troubles.

The woman expressed a wish to leave her husband, which Badrul said he persuaded her not to do.

However, he related that the woman turned up later in Kuantan with her child. Out of a sense of responsibility, he then helped the woman to get accommodations after counseling her to return to her husband.

But, Badrul said in the statement, the husband later turned up with about 20 others and took the woman and her child away by force, physically assaulting him and accusing him of hiding away the man's wife.
Saved by hotel security
He added that he was later saved by hotel security who stopped the men from beating him, but the men kept him in his room until a JAIP officer came to take him into custody as he was alone in his room.

"With this explanation, I hope that all would stop slandering and accusing me. I will not hesitate to take legal action against any quarter who has slandered or accused me," concluded Badrul in the statement.

As of time of writing Malaysiakini was not able to directly verify the statement with Badrul, though it has made the rounds of the pro-BN and pro-Pakatan blogs and was posted in his supporters' club on Facebook.

The matter which was reported by National News Agency Bernama which quoted Mohd Ghazali saying that a PKR leader and his partner, believed to be another man's wife, were caught in the room at 3am by an enforcement team from the department.

Further investigations were ongoing, he told Bernama when asked to confirm the matter.

PKR had organised a weekend retreat in Kuantan to prepare for the general elections.