PI Bala’s wife loses suit against Najib, Rosmah and 6 others
V Anbalagan | July 25, 2018
Court of Appeal says suit filed too late and it is an abuse of process to refile case.
Santamil and her two children filed the suit alleging they suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile in India. (Youtube screengrab)
PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today allowed appeals by former prime minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor and six others to strike out an “intentional harm” suit filed against them by the widow of P Balasubramaniam, better known as PI Bala.
A three-member bench, chaired by Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, said A Santamil Selvi should have filed her lawsuit within six years from July 4, 2008.
That limitation period expired in July 2014.
Tengku Maimun said it was also an abuse of process by Santamil to refile the suit last year.
Santamil, who was represented by Gopal Sri Ram, was also ordered to pay costs of RM4,000 each to the eight appellants.
Meanwhile, co-counsel Americk Sidhu said he would take instructions from the widow whether to take up the case to the Federal Court.
Santamil must, however, first obtain leave to appeal.
In the High Court, lawyers for Najib, Rosmah and six others had argued that Santamil’s suit should be annulled as she was out of time to file the action.
Santamil filed a conspiracy suit in June 2014 against Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s brothers Mohd Nazim and Johari, lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham, Arulampalam Mariampillai, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat and Deepak Jaikishan.
She claimed there was evidence to implicate all the defendants in perpetrating the alleged wrong against them.
However, her lawsuit was struck out by the Court of Appeal in 2015.
Last year, Santamil and her two children filed another suit against the same individuals she named in her previous suit, alleging they suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile in India.
She said these people had deprived her family of a normal life, and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.
Balasubramaniam 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 current suit, the family said the individuals had caused Balasubramaniam’s second SD to be drafted without his instructions and further caused him to sign it under threat and inducement.
The family said 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.
On July 3, 2008, Balasubramaniam told a packed press conference, organised by PKR, that the contents of the first SD, which implicated Najib and several others in the murder of Altantuya, were true.
The second SD, dated July 4, 2008, is supposed to have cleared Najib of any involvement in the case.
In the second SD, Balasubramaniam said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 3, as it had been made under duress.
Balasubramaniam, a former private investigator and key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
He had worked for political analyst and Najib’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda, who had hired him to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance.
