KUALA LUMPUR (June 21): Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Tan Sri Azam Baki has discontinued his defamation suit against whistle-blower K Lalitha over allegations of shares ownership in two public listed companies.

In court papers seen by The Edge, the notice of discontinuance stated that the legal action was discontinued without liberty to file afresh, and without any order as to costs.

The notice was filed on June 11 by Azam's solicitors Zain Megat & Murad, and was signed by Khairuddin, Ngiam & Tan, the firm representing Lalitha.

The matter was set to go to trial next month. The dates will now be vacated. 

The MACC chief filed the suit in January 2022 over a two-part article titled Business Ties Among MACC Leadership: How Deep Does It Go? — Part One and Part Two — which was published on news portal INS on Oct 26, 2021, and republished on Dec 15 that same year.

Among others, the article questioned Azam's ownership of 1,930,000 shares he held in Gets Global Bhd (previously known as KBES Bhd) as of April 30, 2015. The shares were reported to be worth about RM772,000 at the time.

According to the article, Azam's shareholding in Gets Global then dipped to 1,029,500 shares as at March 31, 2016, which was said to be worth around RM340,000 then.

The article also highlighted that Azam was a warrant holder of Excel Force MSC Bhd (KL:EFORCE), in which he held 2,156,000 warrants as of March 2016.

During a press conference addressing the allegations in January 2022, Azam said his share trading account was used by his younger brother to purchase shares in 2015.

Following that, the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) said it would conduct an inquiry into the matter.

On Jan 18, 2022, the SC said it could not conclusively establish if Azam had breached Section 25(4) of the Securities Industry (Central Depositories) Act 1991 (SICDA), which provides that a trading account must be opened in the name of the beneficial owner or authorised nominee.

A day later, the SC clarified it had decided that Azam did not breach the said Section 25(4) of SICDA, saying the evidence it gathered showed that Azam was the named account holder and had control of his share trading account.

In his suit, Azam claimed that the two-part article was "sensational, scandalous", and written with malicious intent to convey a picture that he was a "corrupt civil servant or one who has abused his position as a senior MACC official for his or his sibling’s interests".

He was seeking an apology and RM10 million in general damages, aggravated damages, interest, costs, and other reliefs deemed fit by the court.

In her statement of defence, Lalitha claimed that her sources for the reports were reliable and credible.

In response to that, Azam called into question Lalitha's employment history and her ability as an investigative reporter.

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