A TOTAL of 775 police reports related to various forms of sexual harassment have been lodged so far this year, says Deputy Women, Family and Community Develop-ment Minister Datuk Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff.

       She said there were 474 reports under Section 354 of the Penal Code for using criminal force to outrage a person’s modesty, 35 reports under Section 377D for indecent exposure, and 266 reports under Section 509 for insulting a person’s modesty.

       She said this when replying to a question from Noorita Sual (PH-Tenom) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

       Earlier, Siti Zailah said that cases of alleged sexual harassment were dealt with through several laws, including the Penal Code, Employ-ment Act and Communications and Multimedia Act.

       She said the proposed Sexual Harassment Bill was currently still awaiting approval from the Attorney General’s Chambers.

       “Once approved by the AG, the white paper will then be submitted to the Cabinet for approval before it can be tabled in Parliament.

       “The Bill is expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat for its first reading before the end of this session on Dec 16,” she said.

       Siti Zailah added that the new law would specially deal with incidents of sexual harassment in a comprehensive manner,

       “So that the law will be able to overcome loopholes that may exist.”

       She hoped that the white paper could be approved by the AG this week, when asked for a specific time frame by Datuk Seri Azizah Mohd Dun (Bersatu-Beaufort).