KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — The police have now joined the hunt for cosmetics entrepreneur Nur Sajat Kamaruzzaman as she continues to elude the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais), Utusan Malaysia reported yesterday. 

The Malay daily quoted acting Selangor Police Chief Datuk Arjunaidi Mohamed saying the police are landing its powers following a request from the Selangor Islamic authority.

"Jais has already requested police aid to detect her. We are in the process of tracking her down,’’ he said to the Malay daily. 

On March 1, the police had then stated their readiness to search for Nur Sajat after she had failed to attend a Shariah High Court proceeding last month, in relation to a case three years ago. 

Following Nur Sajat’s supposed disappearance, Jais then issued a statement that they had empowered 122 personnel and enforcement officers to find and arrest Nur Sajat. 

The charge against Nur Sajat was made in accordance with Section 10(a) of the Shariah Crimes (State of Selangor) Enactment 1995 which provides for a sentence not exceeding RM5,000 or imprisonment not exceeding three years or both, if convicted. 

Section 10 refers to the Shariah offence of insulting Islam or causing Islam to be insulted either by mocking or blaspheming the faith and its associated practices and rituals either in a written, pictorial or photographic form. 

The charges were allegedly connected to a religious event that she organised in 2018 where she appeared in a baju kurung.

Nur Sajat has been the subject of intense scrutiny by authorities and some members of the public over her gender identity.

Most recently, she had posted on her social media that she is considering to renounce Islam, ostensibly due to the persecution and attacks she faces from religious authorities and the Muslim public.