KUALA LUMPUR: Police denied yesterday allegations that there were “hidden hands” behind the high-handed action against the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officers as the probe intensified to find the source of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) investigation leak.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Noor Rashid Ibrahim said police are not “attacking” the MACC, but merely carrying out their duty under the law.

Noor Rashid was commenting on the spate of arrests of MACC officers in the past one week. He said the MACC is not the only institution being investigated, but they (police) will also call in Bank Negara Malaysia officials if investigations require them to do so. “At the moment, our investigation is focused on the MACC. There are no hidden hands behind our action. It is our prerogative,” said Noor Rashid.

He said the information leak was not only on the draft of the charge sheet against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, but also on the leak of personal banking information which was against the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989.

“As investigators, we are entrusted with important documents that we should keep closely and confidentially. The leakage of the banking information is against the law.”

He said the person responsible for this leak cannot be protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act. “You are only protected if you leak the information to the authorities,” Noor Rashid said.

On Monday, police visited the MACC office in Putrajaya where they questioned Datuk Bahri Mohamad Zin who is the commission’s director of special operations. 

Two others — MACC forensics division head Datuk I G Chandran and its senior assistant commissioner Tuan Ruslan Tuan Mat — were also questioned on the same day. Prior to that, police detained Attorney-General’s Chambers’ officer Jessica Gurmeet Kaur and former anti-graft agency adviser Tan Sri Rashpal Singh for questioning. 

This was followed by a raid on MACC deputy public prosecutor Ahmad Sazilee Abdul Khairy’s office, where police also seized several documents.

Police continued their operations on Wednesday when they called in another three senior MACC officials for questioning. 

It is believed that all of them are being investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code for activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in digitaledge Daily, on August 7, 2015.