KUALA LUMPUR: Police are refuting a media report that the adopted son of a former Cabinet minister was arrested for abducting and confining his ex-girlfriend for 16 hours at his apartment in Mutiara Damansara over the weekend.

Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid said police could not begin investigations, let alone make arrests, without first obtaining the order to investigate (OTI) from the Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP).

“We did not make such comments as reported yesterday. How can we arrest anyone or record statements from them if we don’t have the OTI?” he said. He added that the case was classified under Section 323 of the Penal Code for causing hurt and not abduction as reported by the local media.

ACP Wan Abdul Bari also denied that the victim, a 24-year-old university student from Ipoh, suffered multiple injuries on the head, face and hands when she was allegedly confined.

“After meeting up for dinner in Bangsar on Saturday, she willingly went with her 25-year-old ex-boyfriend from the same university to his apartment at 9pm.

“The ex-boyfriend was said to have slapped her when she told him that she was seeing another man.

“She then sent an SMS to her current boyfriend claiming that she was assaulted by her ex and was being confined,” said ACP Wan Abdul Bari.

A police team went to the apartment following a report lodged by the woman’s current boyfriend at 10am on Sunday.

However, he denied that police spent about two hours persuading the woman’s ex-boyfriend to release her.

“The police took her away without any hassle. Checks revealed that she had access to the apartment as she had lived there previously for four years,” he said, adding the victim lodged a report at 1pm.