KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 — Umno’s Datuk Mohd Puad Zarkashi has challenged Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz to prove she truly has no knowledge about the RM2.6 billion deposits into Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s bank accounts by taking an oath.

The Malay party’s Batu Pahat chief scoffed at the former Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) governor’s assertion of ignorance, saying it was impossible she had not been informed when US daily, Wall Street Journal and whistleblower website Sarawak Report knew about it.

“Therefore I demand that Zeti publicly swears to deny it.

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“If Zeti is afraid to swear, then she is not qualified to be the new chairman of Permodalan Nasional Berhad, because she will be accused of lying about the RM2.6 billion political donation,” Puad was quoted by Umno-linked Utusan Malaysia as saying in a statement.

Zeti has denied knowledge of the sum being transferred into Najib’s bank accounts prior to the 13th general election in 2013 when she was at the central bank, as alleged by Najib recently.

Najib has been charged with criminal breach of trust and corruption over the scandalous financial misappropriation of funds from SRC International Sdn Bhd, a former unit of 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

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He had claimed in an interview with news portal Malaysiakini that he expected BNM to alert him about the huge amount of money in his accounts if they had prior knowledge and concerns about it.