Police are closing in on the mastermind behind those who circulated sex videos last month that purportedly implicated a minister.

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said although police have yet to identify the mastermind, the investigation has found clues to his identity and signs of a conspiracy.

"I think there is a mastermind. There are hints (bayangan) of who is responsible. There is a form of conspiracy behind this," he told reporters after attending the “Malam Semarak Kasih” programme at the Melati Police Quarters in Setiawangsa, Kuala Lumpur last night.

Based on a recording of the event, he told reporters that the two-prong investigation into the video is focused on tracking down both those who had circulated the video, as well as identifying the mastermind.

Several of those suspected to have circulated the video had been arrested and released, he said, although he was unable to provide the number of those arrested when asked.

"We don't know who he (the mastermind) is. That's why we arrested those whose phones we found to have been used to circulate (the video)," he said.

He added that the investigation paper has yet to be submitted to the attorney-general, although it has been submitted to prosecutors twice, and each time it had been returned with further instructions.

The last time the investigation paper was returned by the prosecutors was on Thursday last week.

Abdul Hamid added that the investigation is taking time because the investigating officer had to comply with the prosecutors' instructions to conduct further investigation, as well as to travel back-and-forth between Kuala Lumpur and Sandakan.

The sex act was allegedly filmed at a hotel in Sandakan.

"All that takes time. Some people don't seem to understand and assumed that the investigation is being deliberately (stalled).

"They should accept and understand that this is the standard operating procedure for cases like this," he said.

As for the authenticity of the video, Abdul Hamid said the results of a laboratory analysis is still pending.

The sex video involving two men surfaced in June, and former PKR Santubong Youth chief Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz confessed shortly after that he was one of the men in the video.

He claimed that the other person was Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali, but the minister has vehemently denied the accusation.