At a press conference at Bukit Aman, Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain said numerous calls to Sanusi and his aides were rejected.
“Since we could not reach him, we tried to find him, and we found him at 2.30am at Mont Kiara,” said Razarudin.
“He was arrested to ensure that he attended court to hear the charges against him.”
The nation’s top cop went on to stress that offences relating to race, religion and royalty needed to be looked into holistically.
“When we investigate, we look into the seriousness of the offence and whether it is insulting and will stir up feelings of hatred and disloyalty towards the rulers,” he said.
He said that in Sanusi’s case, the offence involved the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Selangor sultan, and the Selangor Council of the Royal Court – which lodged a police report against Sanusi last Friday.
“If we let these sort of things go on, all nine (Malay) rulers will be subjected to insults,” he said.
Sanusi, who is Perikatan Nasional election director and caretaker Kedah menteri besar, was charged with two counts of sedition against rulers today.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which relate to his speech at a ceramah in Gombak on July 11.
A video which went viral on social media early this morning showed Sanusi surrounded by plainclothes policemen at what appeared to be a hotel room.
PAS mouthpiece HarakahDaily said Sanusi was detained under Section 4(1)(a) of the Sedition Act before being brought to the Gombak police headquarters.
After he was charged at the Selayang sessions court, Sanusi told the media that he was not informed he would be charged today, adding that he only found out through news reports.
He also claimed he was arrested despite stating that he would present himself in court.
“I informed several parties that I would be present in court this morning, but they still wanted to arrest me at my apartment in Kuala Lumpur at 3am,” he said.
Several parties have criticised Sanusi’s arrest, among them PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, who said the police’s SOPs on arrests at such “late” hours must be revised.
Muda secretary-general Amir Hadi also questioned the need to arrest Sanusi in the wee hours of the morning.
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