Kuala Lumpur, Jan 22 – Bank Islam has lodged two police reports against its suspended chief economist Azrul Azwar Ahmad Tajudin for allegedly obtaining and leaking confidential documents from the bank.
The first police report was lodged by human resource department head Jamilah Abdul Sallam at the Dang Wangi police station last Friday.
The second report was lodged today, according to a statement issued by Bank Islam.
Dang Wangi district police chief Zainuddin Ahmad confirmed to Malaysiakini today that his men are in the process of classifying the reports.
In the first report, which has since been uploaded on several blogs, Jamilah claimed that the bank, during an internal inquiry on alleged breach of company policy and ethics by Azrul, found evidence and documents that indicated he may have committed criminal offenses.
“The bank found that Azrul had obtained confidential documents – the minutes of a meeting of Bank Islam’s board of directors. It contains sensitive information involving a corporate exercise proposal that involves the bank,” states the police report.
“Azrul, who had no access and authority over the documents, handed them to an unrelated third party without approval or permission. The documents were scanned and sent through email to the third party at 12.36pm on June 21, 2012. The email was entitled ‘Top Secret’.”
Jamilah declined to comment when contacted today.
Heavy-handedness
Meanwhile Azrul in a statement, maintained that the allegations in the police report made by his employer did not constitute any criminal offences.
“At most, it is only a civil matter which is now the subject of an internal inquiry between my employer and myself.
“I cannot see why this matter is now being turned into a police case. This heavy-handedness is nothing but an intimidation and harassment tactic against me.
“I am currently seeking legal advice and will be instructing my solicitors for any further action if necessary.”
Azrul, a PKR member, was suspended by the bank, after he predicted at a recent forum in Singapore that there is a strong chance of BN losing the next general election.
He said he believes the suspension was politically motivated but Bank Islam has denied this, arguing that the company believes Azrul had breached employment policies.
In the statement issued today, Bank Islam reiterated that Azrul’s suspension is “totally unrelated to the contents of the paper he presented” at the Regional Economic Conference in Singapore.
“The suspension is due to Azrul’s violation of the bank’s internal policies, the details of which have been conveyed to Azrul in the show cause letter handed to him on Jan 17, 2013,” it added.
