Court throws out bid to include Najib, Rosmah in PI Bala suit

(FMT) – The High Court has dismissed an application by businessman Deepak Jaikishan to include former prime minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor, and six others as third parties in a suit by the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s family.

David Mathews, who represented Najib and Rosmah, said judicial commissioner Quay Shew Soon held there was no prima facie case established by Deepak.

“The judge also held Deepak’s application lacked particulars and the courts in another case (brought by the family) had decided there was no conspiracy,” Mathews told reporters today.

The judge had ruled that Deepak made inconsistent statements in his previous affidavits which contradicted his assertion in the present application.

A Santamil Selvi, widow of Balasubramaniam, better known as PI Bala, and their children sued Najib, Deepak and the others in 2017 for causing them intentional harm as a result of their 2008 exile to India.

Santamil claimed Najib and the others had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer both financial and non-financial losses during their five-year displacement.

She refiled a similar suit against them in 2018 after the first one was dismissed.

Other defendants were Najib’s brothers Nazim and Johari, as well as lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, and commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.

All with the exception of Deepak successfully obtained a court order to be removed as defendants.

However, Deepak filed an application to include them as parties, where should any damages be awarded to the family, they would be compelled to contribute.

PI Bala, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India. He was embroiled in controversy over two conflicting statutory declarations (SDs) he had made on the high-profile murder case in 2006.

He was forced to leave Malaysia for India after signing his second SD on July 4, 2008, which he claimed was made under duress, a day after the first SD was released.