Former inspector-general Abdul Hamid Bador has revealed the story behind Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin's purported attempt to appoint "his boy" into the Royal Malaysian Police Force.

Hamid was quoted as saying by MalaysiaGazette that it involved Hamzah's attempt to install his favoured candidate to lead the Special Branch after the police intelligence unit snubbed the minister's request to conduct political operations.

The revelation came amid Hamzah's own admission that he was the person in a leaked audio recording that discussed appointing people aligned to him to key positions in the police force, whom he referred to as "our boy".