This prompted Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San to ask if the “Datuk Seri” was being given special treatment by the police.

The DAP representative said it had always been the practice of the police to make politicians put on lock-up uniforms when they were produced for court proceedings.

“Lately, a detainee who carries a ‘Datuk Seri’ title was arrested and re-arrested in various locations by police officers for various offences.

“It is clear from various media reports that the said individual was given different treatment if not special treatment, when he was allowed, though handcuffed, to appear in his own clothes other than lock-up uniforms,” Lau said in a statement.

He said it was not long ago that the issue was brought up against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which practised a similar policy as the police when requiring those detained to wear lock-up uniforms.

Padang Serai MP N Surendran said in August that MACC’s practice of making arrested individuals wear lock-up uniforms was in breach of the principle that a person was innocent until proven guilty.

Surendran, a lawyer and rights campaigner, had said that an arrested person could lawfully decline to wear the lock-up uniform.

However, then inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar had defended the move, saying it was a security measure to prevent detainees from being mistaken as commoners in the court house.

Both MACC and the police claimed that such measures were in accordance with the Lock-up Rules and Prison Act.

“Perhaps in the case of the ‘Datuk Seri’, who was detained by so many police officers from various police districts on so many counts of criminal charges, the police can explain if they are giving him a different, if not special treatment (by not making him wear lock-up uniform)?” Lau said.

Stop forcing suspects to wear lock-up uniforms, MACC and police told