JOHOR BARU: Police have hauled up a secondary school principal and two others for questioning over alleged sexual grooming of a male student.

Johor police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Kamaruddin Md Din said the police would also be calling up the teenage victim soon to record his statement.

"I can confirm a police report was lodged pertaining to the allegations against the principal last Thursday (Jan 9).

"We have since called up the principal and two others on Sunday (Jan 12)," he said on Monday (Jan 13).

He did not rule out the possibility in calling more eyewitnesses, including teachers and students from the same school.

Comm Mohd Kamaruddin added that the police have also seized a mobile phone but declined to confirm if it belonged to the principal.

He said that the mobile phone would be sent to the forensic lab for analysis.

Comm Mohd Kamaruddin said the case was being investigated under Section 11 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017 for sexually communicating with a child and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 for sharing offensive and menacing content.

It was reported that Deputy Education Minister Teo Nie Ching said the controversial principal had since been transferred out from the school into the district education office here over the allegations.

The Johor Education Department is investigating claims that an award-winning school principal was involved in the sexual grooming of a male student.

The principal is accused of sending obscene messages to the student, which has since gone viral on social media.