Carpet dealer Deepak now unlikely to testify at lawyer’s misconduct hearing, says source
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- Carpet dealer Deepak now unlikely to testify at lawyer’s misconduct hearing, says …
Carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishan, who allegedly received a sweetheart deal from Bank Rakyat, is now unlikely to attend as a key witness in a disciplinary case against corporate lawyer Tan Sri Cecil Abraham for professional misconduct, a source told The Malaysian Insider.
Abraham was alleged to have prepared a second statutory declaration (SD) for P. Balasubramaniam although he was not on record as the late private investigator's lawyer in a case involving the 2006 murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The source cited a report in The Malaysian Insider on Monday which quoted former Bank Rakyat chairman Tan Sri Sabaruddin Chik as saying that a VIP had used political connections to settle a loan amounting to RM32 million without any interest calculated due to the intervention of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hasan Malek.
It was later learnt that the VIP was Deepak, who is the owner of a carpet firm in Kuala Lumpur who made headlines in 2012 with accusations of acting as a middleman for prominent people.
The Malaysian Insider sent Deepak a text message to seek clarification over the matter but he has yet to reply. The carpet dealer has vanished from public eye since early 2013.
The source also said the the Bar Council, who is the complainant against Abraham, could not compel Deepak to give evidence as the proceedings were merely an internal inquiry.
"At this stage, the council may have an uphill task to prove its case against Abraham," the source told the Malaysian Insider.
The council now has to rely on the evidence of Balasubramaniam's lawyer Amerik Singh Sidhu.
On January 25, 2013, Deepak had given a statement to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) regarding allegations that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had an interest in the reversal of Bala's statutory declaration relating to the death of the Mongolian woman.
Deepak then said that he was not allowed to reveal what was discussed during the interrogation as the matter falls under Section 29 (4) of the MACC Act 2009.
"I have taken them from the root to the fruit. So I have given more information. The entire question was on SD2," he had said.
Najib had also come out publicly to deny Deepak's allegation, claiming that the businessman was not credible.
Meanwhile, the Bar Council has appointed senior lawyer Datuk Bastian Pius Vendargon as counsel to lead evidence and cross examine Abraham.
This follows the refusal of another senior lawyer Lambert Rasaratnam to continue with the case as he was not comfortable because of a "latest development", which was not specified.
It is immediately not known when the next hearing would be as the council had applied for a postponement to give Vendargon time to prepare.
Disciplinary proceedings against Abraham started in March.
Abraham is being investigated by a three-man Advocates and Solicitors Disciplinary Board (ASDB) committee for professional misconduct as he had allegedly prepared a contentious sworn statement to counter Balasubramaniam's first SD, which had incriminated Najib and several other personalities in relation to the 2006 murder of Altantuya.
The ASDB decided to hold the proceedings after finding there was a prima facie case against the lawyer for professional misconduct.
The committee, comprising two lawyers and a layman, is looking into Abraham's alleged misconduct under Section 94 of the Legal Profession Act (LPA) 1976 for "conduct or omission to act by a lawyer in a professional capacity which amounts to grave impropriety".
"This misconduct is in relation to Abraham, who is alleged to have drafted the SD for Balasubramaniam, when the late private investigator was not his client.
"At all material times, Americk was on record as the counsel for Balasubramaniam," a source said.
The council lodged a complaint against Abraham to the ASDB last year and council chairman Christopher Leong appeared in March before the committee to give evidence in a closed-door session.
The ASDB, which is a body independent of the Bar Council, is statutorily tasked to investigate professional misconduct.
Deepak had earlier admitted that he helped to get Balasubramaniam to repudiate his first SD by finding two lawyers to draft the new statement.
Americk had thrown light on the contentious SD when he read out a prepared statement at the Malaysian Bar's 67th annual general meeting (AGM) last year where he had said: "Tan Sri Cecil Abraham admitted to me that he was the one who drafted the second statutory declaration".
Americk later told reporters at the sidelines of the AGM that the directive to Abraham came from Najib, who was then the deputy prime minister.
"I'm not interested in lodging a complaint with the board. That is not my agenda. My agenda is just to find out who instructed him to do it," he had said.
Leong had also on the sidelines of the AGM suggested that the Attorney-General’s Chambers relook Altantuya’s case based on evidence from Americk’s revelation, as well as Deepak’s admittance of involvement in the case.
Two former police commandos – Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar and Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri – who were charged with Altantuya's murder, were found guilty and sentenced to death by the Shah Alam High Court.
Their convictions, however, were overturned by the Court of Appeal last year.
Putrajaya is appealing the decision by the Court of Appeal. Former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who was charged with abetting them, was also acquitted in 2008.
Balasubramaniam or "PI Bala" had accused several top federal government personalities of being involved in Altantuya's murder in his first SD in 2008, two years after the woman's murder.
But he retracted the SD the following day and signed a new one, where the names of the personalities, including Najib, were omitted.
Bala died of a heart attack on March 15 last year, weeks after returning home from self-exile. – May 28, 2014.
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