A police report was lodged yesterday against activist Lalitha Kunaratnam, who wrote about Tan Sri Azam Baki’s alleged share acquisition in two public-listed companies, for allegedly lying to the court. — Picture by Ahmad Zamzahuri
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — The lawyer for activist Lalitha Kunaratnam has labelled a recent police report lodged against his client by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as “bordering on the absurd”.
In the latest twist in the saga of MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki’s proxy stock trading admission, Lalitha’s lawyer, Manjeet Singh Dhillon, said that the report lodged could be found in contempt of court as the matter is still part of an ongoing civil court action between his client and Azam.
“MACC has to appreciate and understand what is there now in the public domain in the Azam Baki-Lalitha pending matter are court pleadings and they have not even been closed in line with Court rules.
“If the report does originate from the MACC, then the unnamed report maker has attempted to usurp the role of the anticipated judge in the anticipated trial and the anticipated evidence. This is a sheer act of arrogance by the MACC,” he said in a statement today.
For context, a police report was lodged yesterday against Lalitha, who wrote about Azam’s alleged share acquisition in two public-listed companies, for allegedly lying to the court.
It was reported that an anonymous source told Free Malaysia Today that the complaint — lodged at the Sentul district police station — was over her alleged false employment status with anti-graft NGO, the Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4).
She was alleged to have made the claim in her statement of defence on February 3, in response to a defamation lawsuit filed by Azam.
Manjeet then demanded that the MACC stop harassing his client and let the judicial process take its course.
“The MACC and its officers should proceed cautiously and stay out of this matter lest they fall foul of the contempt laws.
“The MACC do not have the right to comment on or usurp the powers of any trial judge or ventilate prematurely or preemptively on the likely evidence in the trial.
“In the interim, ACP Beh Eng Lai, the Sentul KPD, should consign the latest MACC report to its rightful place — the nearest dustbin,” he said.
Azam last month filed a lawsuit against Lalitha over her article titled “Business Ties Among MACC Leadership: How Deep Does It Go?”
He is demanding a public apology and RM10 million from the activist, for alleged defamation over her reports.
The Securities Commission (SC) Malaysia concluded that Azam had full control of his trading account despite telling the public it was used by his brother, Nasir Baki, days before that, and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
The regulator had on January 19, said it decided that a law — which only allows share trading accounts to be used by the person benefiting from it or which disallows proxy trading — had not been violated, as independent evidence from an inquiry showed that Azam had control of and operated his trading account by giving instructions to buy, sell and trade shares from the account.
The SC had launched the investigation after Azam previously publicly declared in a press conference that his share trading account was used by his brother to buy shares – a move widely perceived as proxy trading by the public.