Police Scotland boss Sir Iain Livingstone has said it's "absolutely outrageous" to imply that he or his force tipped off Nicola Sturgeon that her husband would be arrested, following accusations.
Former SNP chief Peter Murrell was arrested as part of investigations into the party's finances on April 5, just over a month after the former First Minister suddenly resigned from her role.
Surgeon maintains that no current pressures had driven her to quit, but opponents have asserted that it was too much of a coincidence that she announced she was leaving the job on February 15.
Sir Iain said nobody in his force had informed the Scottish Government about the impending operation amid speculation among MSPs at Holyrood that Sturgeon was informed about her husband’s arrest in advance.
Speaking to STV news, he said: “Categorically not, absolutely outrageous suggestion to imply that I or my investigative team act with anything other than total integrity,”
“When an investigation develops, you have to go and start speaking to other witnesses, you have to go and start to take other steps.
“I do not know the reason that the former first minister resigned but I do know it was certainly nothing to do with any tip-off coming from my office or me personally.”
Sir Iain, who will be retiring imminently, has been presiding over the force while it has investigated an allegedly missing £600,000 of ring-fenced funds which had been raised for independence campaigning. Both Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon have been arrested and questioned by cops, alongside former SNP treasurer Colin Beattie.
All three were released "pending further investigation." The marital home of the couple was also raided by detectives who spent over a day searching the property and its grounds.
An un-minuted meeting with then-justice secretary Keith Brown and police in the days before Ms Sturgeon's resignation has helped fuel speculation.
However, Sir Iain told Scotland Tonight that nobody from her office had approached the force about the status of the investigation. He said: "Absolutely not, I don't think they would."
He added: "Now, people may feel I could have done other things as the chief constable, that I could have done more of this, less of that, but I don't think any senior politician, or anybody who has observed policing in the last number of years in Scotland, would think that I am anything other than totally operationally independent - and I guard that rigorously."
Sturgeon has insisted that she is innocent of any wrongdoing but has since faced calls from some in her own party that she should voluntarily suspend her party membership until the police investigation is completed.
But Sturgeon has ruled out quitting the SNP.
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