Police have denied taking a long time to conduct investigations into a defamation case involving allegations that the son of Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had outraged the modesty of a female student six years ago.

Timur Laut District Police Chief ACP Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said police had actually completed the investigation papers and had referred it several times to the Penang and Putrajaya Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP)'s office.

"The investigations into the case included recordings of 38 witnesses and the report on the analysis of evidence from the social media obtained from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Syarikat Telekom Malaysia and the Police Forensics Department.

"Several instructions have been given to finalise the investigations into the case," he said in a statement here Saturday.

He was commenting on reports in several news portal which claimed that police were taking a long time investigating the case involving Lim's son.

Mior Faridalathrash said police also recorded Lim's words pertaining to the case at his office in Komtar on March 2 following instructions from the Putrajaya DPP office to complete the investigation.

"So, Lim's allegation about delays in conducting the investigation is not accurate because these investigations take time for the analysis on the evidence obtained from the social media, equipment and supporting evidence, to help in the investigation," he said.

For instance, he said, there were websites involved in the case which used the content and services of websites based in America, and it took time to analyse compared to website facilities based in Malaysia through Telekom Malaysia.

Mior Faridalathrash said the investigation papers on the case have been finalised and was referred back to the Penang Deputy Public Prosecutor Office director yesterday for further instructions. -- Bernama