BN strategic communications deputy director Eric See-To said there was no necessity for Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to sue the media for raising a legitimate question.

This was after the Penang Chief Minister's office earlier today decried a "smear attempt" following See-To's disclosure of a photo of Lim and a businessperson who was arrested by the MACC for allegedly receiving an RM19 million bribe over the Penang tunnel project.

"There is no need to slam the media for merely reporting the story and raising legitimate questions over the RM6.34 billion mega-scandal," See-To said in a statement today.

Lim's (photo) office in a statement said the chief minister took photographs with many people and this did not mean that they were buddies.

However, See-To said no media was claiming that the "Datuk Seri" arrested by MACC was Lim's "buddy" and that he should not "overreact".

"I had merely questioned the CM of both persons' relationship," he said.

However, See-To wanted to know if the photograph took place in the Datuk Seri's residence.

"It would be hard to believe that the Penang chief minister does not remember when he had visited this home and whether it was around the time when the Datuk Seri started receiving the RM19 million payments.

"If it is indeed at the Datuk Seri's house, another question would then be what business does the chief minister have in visiting the house," he said.

See-Too added that Lim had taken off his shoes during the photograph with the Datuk Seri.

"Normally, you would take off your shoes if you were in someone's house.

"If you took the trouble to go to someone's house then the person must be more important and I am sure you remember where was this," he said.

Earlier today, Lim's office said trying to link the chief minister with the Datuk Seri through a photograph was "perverse logic".

They illustrated this with an example of a photo that Lim took with 1MDB-linked property developer Goh Chun Lye.

“Using the latest BN perverse logic, does this mean that the Penang CM is a buddy of Goh and connected to 1MDB too?

“However, the Penang CM taking a photo with Goh did not prevent the latter from leading a concerted campaign, and spending up to RM40 million of 1MDB money to try to defeat the chief minister in his Air Putih constituency during the 2013 general election," he said.