PETALING JAYA:
Whistleblower Lalitha Kunaratnam today faced almost four hours of questioning by the police over articles she wrote on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Azam Baki’s share ownership issue.
According to Lalitha, she answered about 83 questions pertaining to the investigation into her two-part article entitled “Business Ties Among MACC Leadership: How Deep Does It Go?”, published last year.
“I answered (the questions) to the best of my ability. My statement was about 15 pages long. The officer handling my case was very professional,” she told the media at Bukit Aman.
Lalitha said she was investigated under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA) and Section 505 of the Penal Code for publishing statements “conducing to public mischief”.
Lalitha’s lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon said that the long duration of questioning left her exhausted.
“She’s not shaken up. She is just tired. Three and a half hours is a long time,” he said.
In a media conference on Jan 5, Azam said his brother, Nasir had used his trading account to purchase shares that were later transferred to Nasir’s account.
Prior to that, Sungai Buloh MP R Sivarasa called for a probe into Azam’s shareholdings, citing reports that the latter had purchased millions of shares and warrants between 2015 and 2016.
The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) later said it could not “conclusively establish” any wrongdoing by Azam after completing its inquiry into the matter.