Lotus chief Dany Bahar suspended

Lotus boss Dany Bahar has been temporarily suspended from his role following a complaint into his conduct by the company's Malaysian owners, DRB-Hicom.

The company said the decision was made following an operational review of Lotus.

In a statement, parent company DRB-Hicom, said: "Group Lotus can confirm that, following an operational review, chief executive Dany Bahar has been temporarily suspended from his role to facilitate an investigation into a complaint about his conduct made by Lotus' penultimate parent company, DRB-Hicom Berhad.

"The penultimate holding company would like to stress it is business as usual at Lotus," the company confirmed to the Norwich Evening News.

DRB-Hicom has appointed Dato' Lukman Ibrahim, Modh Khalid Yusof and Aslam Farikulla to handle the company's day-to-day affairs.

Bahar joined Lotus in 2009 having come from Ferrari, and made headlines with an ambitious five-car model line-up at the 2010 Paris motor show.

Just earlier this week he told TopGear.com that "the takeover of our parent company Proton by DRB-Hicom couldn't have come at a worse time but, up until that point Lotus was on track to meet the major milestones as set out in the five year business plan."