The senior exco member, Abdul Latif Bandi, was arrested at 10.50am at the state MACC office in Johor Bahru, after he had been called in for questioning on the investigation pertaining to the arrest of his son and special officer on Feb 24.
Latif, who is the Johor housing and local government committee chairman, decided to go on leave pending the investigation into the case involving the reduction of premium for land approved for housing and industrial projects as well as conversion of the status of various premises in Johor.
Earlier today, Bernama reported that four men, including Latif’s son and the special officer, were released on bail by MACC. The two other men arrested over the scandal are a lawyer and member of the public.
Since the scandal broke with the arrest of his son and special officer, Latif had kept silent on the matter and had also not been seen in public.
On Feb 24, MACC detained six men, aged 25 to 50, at several locations in Johor Bahru in a simultaneous operation.
Aside from the four released today, two developers were also detained. The developers had been released on bail earlier.
MACC also seized 21 luxury cars, five high-powered motorcycles, cash of RM500,000, including foreign currency, and documents.
In addition, 45 bank accounts belonging to all the suspects involved, amounting to RM15.5 million, were frozen to help in investigations.
To date, MACC has called in 15 people to have their statements recorded.
Meanwhile, Johor Menteri Besar Mohamed Khaled Nordin has said that he would leave it to the MACC to investigate the case.
“We sympathise but I believe we should leave it to the MACC to achieve justice in the matter (on corruption and asset misappropriation),” he told reporters after attending the Johor State Assembly sitting in Kota Iskandar today.