KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has allowed an application by the widow of private investigator P Balasubramaniam, whose family was allegedly forced to leave Malaysia in 2008, to cross-examine businessman Deepak Jaikishan over the filing of two conflicting defences.On March 2, lawyers for A Santamil Selvi would also be allowed to question Deepak whether he voluntarily retained legal firm Shafee & Co to represent him in the suit.
Lawyer Chan Kay Ding said Justice Hue Siew Kheng allowed both applications when she delivered her ruling in chambers today.
“The cross-examination is limited to which of the two conflicting defences Deepak had intended to file and whether Shafee & Co had the authority to represent him,” Chan told reporters.
This means Deepak will give evidence under oath before he answers questions.
Deepak, who was present at the proceeding today, expressed hope that the “truth will finally free me”.
“It is the discretion of the judge and I will have to speak or else I will be in contempt,” he told reporters.
Deepak said he would reveal the entire story on what happened, from the time Santamil Selvi filed her first suit in June 2014 until it was struck out in December that year.
The suit was then annulled on the grounds that Santamil Selvi had not obtained a letter of administration to represent the estate of her late husband Balasubramaniam, who was better known as PI Bala.
Deepak also disclosed today that Shafee & Co had sent to Hue a written submission in response to Santamil Selvi’s applications but it was withdrawn as it was filed without his consent.
“Later, Shafee & Co refused to send the amended version to the judge. So the judge made the ruling based on the only submission, as presented by Santamil Selvi,” he said.
Deepak filed his first defence on Oct 25 and it was served on lawyer Americk Sidhu, who first represented the widow and the children.
Subsequently, lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who was listed to appear for Deepak, filed the second defence.
Deepak’s first defence stated that Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor had orchestrated the plaintiff’s exile to India in 2008.
However, the latest defence absolved the couple of any wrongdoing.
Americk had said the defence’s two statements were “diametrically opposed” in material particulars.
Santamil Selvi had also filed an application to disqualify Shafee from representing Deepak.
Santamil Selvi and her children have named Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s brothers Mohd Nazim and Johari, lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat and Deepak as parties to her action.
Santamil Selvi, who is also acting for the estate of Balasubramaniam, filed the action in August contending they had suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile in India.
She said the defendants had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.
Santamil Selvi, together with her two children, Kishen and Menaga, are seeking damages, with interest, for losses suffered from July 2008 as a result of their five-year displacement.
PI Bala was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) in the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In the present suit, the family said the defendants had caused PI Bala’s second SD to be drafted without his instruction and, further, caused him to sign it under threat and inducement.
He was forced to leave Malaysia for India in a hurry after signing the second SD in July 2008, a day after the first was released, it claimed.
The second SD, dated July 4, 2008, is supposed to have cleared Najib of any involvement in the case.
Balasubramaniam, in the second SD, said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 1, as it had been made under duress.
Balasubramaniam, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
He was hired by political analyst and Najib associate Abdul Razak Baginda, to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance.
