A senior aide to an Umno minister was detained and quizzed by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for alleged graft involving RM70,000.

macc and umno aca The aide, believed to be the political secretary of the Umno supreme council member, was detained late Wednesday.

According to the Star , he was released early yesterday.

The man, who was once a senior politician, was quizzed at midnight and released several hours later after his statement was recorded.

The man, said the daily, is alleged to have received the money from someone but no further details were available.

MACC officers declined to comment on the matter.

It is learnt that the minister will be contesting in this month's upcoming Umno elections, but it could not be ascertained if the incident was linked to this.

Phone calls to the minister concerned went unanswered.

Another council member targetted

Umno has always been haunted by the spectre of money politics, which in the past has led to the suspension of several senior leaders.

The MACC is currently probing a series of reports lodged in relation to money politics in the party.

Numerous division leaders have since been hauled to court.

This latest MACC sting comes slightly a month after the commission rounded up 12 party division leaders for alleged money politics.

Among those queried then included supreme council member and strategist Norza Zakaria, who was believed to have been grilled by the anti-corruption commission for more than eight hours in Temerloh.

Subsequently a Maran Umno division committee member lodged a police report stating that he was forced by the MACC to implicate Norza with corrupt practices.