SOMETHING ABOUT ME: Sometimes, reading stuff about certain race's special rights and corruption can seriously make my blood boil!!! Read this guy's story on why he HATES BN.
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When will justice be SERVED to those who were TRULY involved in the case??!
I think it's safe to say that MAJORITY of Malaysians and anyone who's aware of this case knows in their gut somehow that the actual culprit has not been caught yet.
Although we, who are kept out of loop as to the extent of Najib's involvement or those connected to him in the Atlantuya's case. One can only wonder how did he advance to be the Prime Minister of our country with such a dark cloud hanging around him. Maybe he wasn't involved at all.
But hypothetically if he was involved, one would think that once in PM power, hypothetically speaking, IF he was involved in any way or those close to him, it would be rather easy for evidence to just disappear, right?
Pic taken from MALAYSIAN TODAY.Just google "Atlantuya" and you can read all about the case, allegations, about the private investigator that made a declaration of statement that was rather tantamount to the case who disappeared and now has resurfaced. In fact, it would seem that there have been such similar so-called covered up murders in Malaysia linking prominent people.
I may not have hard proof, concrete evidence but the below just spark all these thoughts and just made me realised once again how sometimes JUSTICE may not really be served. I wonder if God will punish them even IF they did repent...
THE below was taken from Crime and Investigation. It is really long but do spare some time to read it and form your own conclusions or rather opinions.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Najib and the Murdered Mongolian
The Malaysian murder case that won't die
In the 90-second video, Balasubramaniam said he had met with businessman Deepak Jaikshnan, the director of a carpet firm, in a bak ku teh (pork rib soup) restaurant in the Rawang suburb where he lived, in which the businessman offered him the money. In an accompanying story in Malaysia Today, Raja Petra displayed photocopies of 50,000 ringgit checks on Public Bank of Malaysia made out by Deepak Jaikshnan.
Asia Sentinel
A Malaysian private investigator in hiding for more than a year after recanting a sensational statement connecting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to the murder of a Mongolian translator has surfaced to reaffirm his allegations and to say he had been offered a 5 million Malaysian ringgit ($1.49 million) bribe to disappear by a businessman said to be connected to Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor.
The attractive translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu, was murdered by two of Najib’s elite bodyguards in October 2006 in a particularly gruesome fashion. After she was shot twice in the head, her body was blown up with C-4 plastic explosives. Any indication that she and two friends had entered Malaysia disappeared from the immigration department’s records.
The statement by the private detective, P Balasubramaniam, in a YouTube video, appeared on Malaysia Today, the Web site run by Malaysian journalist Raja Petra Kamarudin, who promised far more startling episodes in the near future. As many as five segments, accounting for 20 minutes of revelations, remain to be aired, he said in an e-mail message to Asia Sentinel.
Balasubramaniam said in his original statutory declaration that he had been hired by Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib’s closest friends, to protect him from the wrath of Altantuya after he had jilted her. Razak Baginda was originally charged with the murder along with Najib’s bodyguards, but was acquitted without having to put on a defense.
In the 90-second video, Balasubramaniam said he had met with businessman Deepak Jaikshnan, the director of a carpet firm, in a bak ku teh (pork rib soup) restaurant in the Rawang suburb where he lived, in which the businessman offered him the money. In an accompanying story in Malaysia Today, Raja Petra displayed photocopies of 50,000 ringgit checks on Public Bank of Malaysia made out by Deepak Jaikshnan. Although no indication was given of where Balasubramaniam is now, other sources say he may be in India. In the videotape, he was said to be in the company of three Malaysian lawyers.
Almost immediately on giving his original statement tying Najib to Altantuya in the company of his lawyer and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, the private investigator was hustled to a Kuala Lumpur police station where he wholly and completely recanted the statement, saying he had been coerced into making it by Anwar and others. Then he and his family disappeared. He had not been heard from since.
In his original statement, Balasubramaniam said he was making it because of his “disappointment at the standard of investigations conducted by the authorities into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.” He wrote that he wanted the “relevant authorities to reopen their investigations into this case immediately so that any fresh evidence may be presented to the court prior to submissions at the end of the prosecutions [sic] case.”
According to letters found after Altantuya was murdered, she was attempting to blackmail the married Razak Baginda for $500,000 after he had broken off their affair after spending thousands of dollars on her. The two bodyguards, Cpl. Sirul Azhar Umar and his boss, Chief Insp. Azilah Hadri, were convicted of the murder and have been sentenced to hang. They are currently appealing the sentence. Sirul confessed to the murder, although the confession was never allowed into evidence in the trial, and said the two had been offered 100,000 ringgit to kill the woman.
The marathon trial was notable for the extensive lengths the defense, prosecution and judge all went to in a bid to keep Najib’s name out of it. Although Razak Baginda, in a cautioned statement, said he had gone to Musa Safri, Najib’s chief of staff, to ask for help in keeping Altantuya away from him, neither Musa Safri nor Najib was ever called to give evidence or appear in court. Razak Baginda almost immediately left the country for England after his acquittal. The two bodyguards have rarely been seen in public. When they are produced, their heads are usually covered, leading cynics to speculate that when it comes time to hang them, some other luckless criminals might be forced to substitute for them.
The private investigator said in 2008 that he had extensive conversations with Razak Baginda in the days leading up to Altantuya’s death in which he was told she had been introduced to Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore and that she had been handed to him to look after because Najib “did not want her to harass him since he was now the deputy prime minister.”
It should be noted that on occasion, Malaysia Today has been spectacularly wrong. At one point the Web site said Rosmah Mansor had been present at Altantuya’s murder, although Sirul’s confession made no mention of her and no other evidence has emerged to indicate she had been in the jungle clearing where the translator died. But the Web site has also delivered sensational reports that have been verified.
In the story on the Web site on the same day the YouTube video appeared, Raja Petra recalled that he had been having lunch with Balasubramaniam when the private detective received a phone call from a supposed police supervisor named Suresh to tell him his family’s security was at stake. After he had repudiated his statement, according to Raja Petra, he was whisked to India and hidden. Balasubramaniam, Raja Petra wrote, had no choice but to accept the 50,000 ringgit a month and “retirement” in India or suffer the same fate as Altantuya.
“Little did they know that Bala was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike back. And now he is striking back and has come out to reveal what really happened since the time he signed his first Statutory Declaration, followed by the second one the following day, 16 months ago,” Raja Petra wrote.
The Altantuya murder, with its long-rumored ties to Najib, has had the potential to blow up into one of Malaysia’s biggest scandals ever since the time the woman’s body was found near a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. In his original declaration, Balasubramaniam said he had been told by Razak Baginda that the woman wanted the $500,000 apparently as a commission owed to her from “a deal in Paris.” The document also purported to confirm long-reported rumors that Najib, Razak Baginda and Altantuya had been at a dinner in Paris at a time when a submarine contract was being negotiated. During the trial, a cousin of Altantuya’s said she had seen a picture of the three at dinner, but the prosecution and defense both refused to take the matter further.
That deal was the purchase by the Malaysian government of three submarines at a cost of $1 billion. According to testimony in the Malaysian Parliament, a company controlled by Razak Baginda received a 117 million euro “commission” for the purchase of the submarines from the French military. Interestingly, in late October the son of the late French President Francois Mitterrand and a former minister were convicted of taking bribes relating to the sale of a huge amount of arms to the government of Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos between 1993 and 1998 in defiance of a UN arms embargo. Some 42 persons were accused of selling weapons to the Angolans. Despite calls to have Paris look into the Malaysian submarine transactions for possible evidence of corruption, no action has been taken and it appears unlikely that it will be.
Part 1: The mystery unveiled
What really happened in the 48 hours after PI Bala unveiled his first SD on 3 July 2008? Why did he sign a second SD that contradicted his first SD barely a few hours later? And where did he disappear to for more than a year just hours after signing his second SD? And which SD was signed under duress, the first or second? Today, Malaysia Today will answer all those questions that have been on the minds of Malaysians since July last year. After the press conference held at the PKR headquarters on the 3rd July 2008 you returned to the office of your lawyer where you stayed until about 4.30 pm.
A. Yes that is correct
Q 2. Who was with you in your lawyer’s office at that time?
A. My lawyer Americk Sidhu, ASP Suresh and my ex-assistant Suras Kumar.
Q 3. What time did you leave your lawyers office?
A. About 4.45 pm. I left with ASP Suresh and Suras Kumar. ASP Suresh had his car parked underneath the office. Suras left on his own motorcycle.
Q 4. Where were you intending to go?
A. I had a conversation over the telephone with ASP Tonny from the Brickfields police station earlier that afternoon. He wanted to meet me to discuss the contents of my 1st statutory declaration which I had released at the press conference that morning. He told me he was off-duty at 6.30 pm and suggested we meet informally at an ‘ikan bakar’ stall near the police station. I agreed. ASP Suresh was to drive me there after leaving my lawyers office.
Q 5. What did ASP Tonny want to see you to discuss?
A. He sounded glad that I had released my 1st statutory declaration as he was the investigating officer in the Altantuya murder trial and was therefore involved in the case. I think he just wanted to have an informal chat with me.
Q 6. So you had met him before?
A. Yes, he had interviewed me in relation to the Altantuya murder previously (during the murder investigation).
Q 7. Did you manage to meet with ASP Tonny?
A. No. After leaving my lawyers office, ASP Suresh suggested we go to Cheras instead. I informed ASP Tonny that I could not make it that evening and that I would see him the next day.
Q 8. Why did ASP Suresh want to go to Cheras?
A. He had some business dealing in copper wires and he needed to do some work at his scrap yard there.
Q 9. Was ASP Suresh a police officer at that time?
A. He was an officer with the IPK D9 division CID but had been suspended pending some internal investigations conducted by the ACA.
Q 10. Where did you go after leaving Cheras?
A. ASP Suresh needed to go to Rawang to burn some of his scrap wires. We left Cheras at about 7.30 pm on the way to Rawang. We were still in ASP Suresh’s car.
Q 11. What happened on the journey from Cheras to Rawang?
A. ASP Suresh received some calls on his hand phone from persons I subsequently discovered were Dinesh and Deepak. They apparently wanted ASP Suresh to arrange a meeting with me. At first ASP Suresh did not agree to any meeting but finally agreed to meet in a Bak Kut Teh shop in Rawang.
Q 12. Did you go straight to the Bak Kut Teh shop?
A. No, we first went to the Kuala Garing area to burn some cables and wires. After that we went to the Bak Kut Teh shop where both Deepak and Dinesh were waiting for us.
Q 13. What did you discuss?
A. Deepak started talking to me to try and persuade me to withdraw my 1st statutory declaration. He mentioned to me that there was a red car outside my house in Rawang with military intelligence personnel in it, and that they knew my wife and children were at home.
Q 14. What was your reaction to this piece of information?
A. I was very concerned about this as my wife had called me on my hand phone while I was on my way to Rawang with ASP Suresh to inform me that there was a suspicious looking red car parked opposite our house and that the persons inside appeared to be watching the house. She had been informed of the presence of this car by a neighbour. I told her to lock the gates and to remain inside.
Q 15. What else did Deepak say?
A. He talked to me about the virtues of the present government and what a wonderful woman Rosmah was. He told me he was very good friends with Rosmah and how she visited his shop all the time. He then offered to pay me RM4 million to withdraw my 1st statutory declaration. I was rather stunned but before I could say anything ASP Suresh signaled me to refuse this offer. I said I was not interested in money and so Deepak said he could also organise the release of 5 Hindraf leaders in Kamunting, he could arrange for 528 Tamil schools to become fully-aided schools by the government, that he could get ASP Suresh’s job back and also give him RM4 million as well. He wanted to take me to Putrajaya and kept persisting but I refused to go.
Q 16. What happened next?
A. ASP Suresh asked Deepak to raise the offer to RM5 million and he agreed straight away. He also told me he was willing to organise a monthly payment of RM20,000.00 and that if there was anything else I wanted to put this in writing. He then made a few phone calls on his handphone and then told ASP Suresh to drive me to The Curve near One Damansara Utama.
Q 17. Were you negotiating with Deepak?
A. No, I did not say anything. ASP Suresh was doing all the talking and negotiating. I was more concerned with the safety of my family as I did not know what was going to happen to them.
Q 18. What happened next?
A. Deepak left by himself leaving his brother Dinesh with us. After about half an hour we all left in ASP Suresh’s car. Dinesh was seated in the front passenger seat and I sat in the rear seat. We reached The Curve about half an hour later. The time now was 11.45 pm.
Q 19. Why were you going to The Curve?
A. ASP Suresh told me we were going to meet a VIP there. When we reached the curve I suggested we go to the MacDonald’s restaurant but ASP Suresh said that was not a good idea because there were CCTV cameras there. We then proceeded to the Volkswagen showroom where a Malay gentleman arrived with his pregnant wife and Deepak.
Q 20. Who was this Malay gentleman?
A. I did not recognise him. I was just told he was a VIP Datuk. I did however recognise his wife.
Q 21. Did you speak to this Malay Datuk?
A. Yes, I was introduced to him by Deepak. I was very surprised when I realised who he was.
Q 22. What did this Malay Datuk talk to you about?
A. He told me he knew I had a family and asked me whether I loved them. I replied saying of course I loved my family. He then told me I should take good care of them as anything could happen to them. He then told me that if I wanted to avoid any problems with my family I should just follow Deepak’s instructions and everything would be OK. He told me I had to retract the contents of my 1st statutory declaration. This Malay Datuk then left immediately with his wife.
Part 2: Bala’s prison without bars
Bala is made to sign the 2nd SD and is bundled out of the country. From thereon they keep him on a tight leash and he no longer has control over what he can say or do. He discovers he has just entered a life of imprisonment; although without the normal bars and padlocks but still a prison nevertheless.
Q 23. What happened next?
A. Deepak gave instructions to Dinesh to book a room at the Hilton Hotel KL Sentral. I left with ASP Suresh to my house in Rawang to see my wife and explain to her what was happening. I was concerned for the safety of my family. Deepak had informed me he wanted me to retract my 1st statutory declaration and then to immediately leave the country with my family. I was in a state of shock as to what was happening. I had anticipated that I would be arrested and interrogated after releasing my 1st statutory declaration but I did not anticipate my family would be threatened so I was not prepared for this. As this VIP Datuk was also involved, I realised the situation was very serious.
Q 24. What time did you arrive home after leaving The Curve?
A. ASP Suresh and I arrived at my house at about 2.00 am that morning. I explained everything to my wife and told her we had to pack up and leave Malaysia that very day, as I had been instructed. I also told her to get ready to go to the immigration department that morning to apply for my children’s passports and to renew hers. I had arranged with a friend of mine called Christopher to pick them all up at 8.30 am and to drive them to the Pusat Damansara immigration department that morning with all their luggage.
Q 25. Where did you go next?
A. ASP Suresh then drove me to the site at which he was burning wires where he organised his workers to do the loading onto some 3-ton trucks. We then left for the Hilton Hotel in KL Sentral.
Q 26. What time did you arrive at the Hilton Hotel?
A. We reached the Hotel about 3.00 am. ASP Suresh called Dinesh to find out the room number. Both Deepak and Dinesh met us in the lobby and we all went up to the room. I had been told earlier that my family and I would be sent to Hong Kong. I said I was not happy about being sent to Hong Kong and I would prefer to go to Chennai. Deepak agreed to this. He then tried to arrange a private jet for us. This had to be cancelled when it was realised we would have to go through immigration at the airport. Deepak then suggested we go through Singapore by road, then fly to Bangkok en route to Chennai. I agreed. They continued talking to me about the seriousness of my 1st statutory declaration and that I would have to retract it otherwise they could not guarantee anything if the deal failed. Eventually Dinesh left for home to take a nap.
Q 27. What else did you discuss while in the hotel room?
A. Deepak was telling me how he had become very good friends with Rosmah from the time she used to visit his shop in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. He wouldn’t let me sleep as he was talking all the time.
Q 28. Did anything else happen that morning?
A. Dinesh returned to the hotel looking refreshed. At about 7.45 am someone delivered a draft copy of the 2nd statutory declaration to the hotel. Deepak went down to the lobby to collect it after receiving a call on his hand phone. Sometime later a Commissioner for Oaths arrived. He was a Malay man. I was asked to sign this statutory declaration in front of this commissioner for oaths and he attested my signature. He asked me if I knew where his office was and I said I did not. He then told Deepak to make sure he showed me where his office was on the way to the Prince Hotel. I was never given an opportunity to read the contents of this statutory declaration.
Q 29. Did you know at this stage that you would be taken to the Prince Hotel?
A. Yes. Deepak had informed me that he would be organising a press conference at the Prince Hotel later that morning and that he would make sure a lawyer represented me. He told me not to worry and that I would not have to say anything, just leave it up to the lawyer to talk to the press.
Q 30. What time did you leave the Hilton Hotel?
A. About 8.45 am. Deepak, Dinesh and I left together. I went with Dinesh in his BMW while Deepak went on his own. Dinesh did not show me where the Commissioner for Oaths office was.
Q 31. What time did you reach the Prince Hotel?
A. We arrived at the Prince Hotel at about 9.15 am and drove up the ramp to the car park where we waited for further instructions from Deepak who was apparently downstairs by that time. Eventually Dinesh received a call on his hand phone and he escorted me to a lift which took us down to what looked like a type of lobby on an upper level.
Q 32. Did you meet anyone in this lobby area?
A. Yes. Deepak was waiting in this lobby with another Indian man. This Indian man was introduced to me as one Mr. Arunampalam, a lawyer. This lawyer spoke to me and told me to just keep quiet in the press conference arranged for us in the main lobby. He told me not to talk to any of the reporters under any circumstances and that he would do all the talking. Deepak then told Arunampalam to answer not more than 3 questions from the reporters waiting downstairs and handed him a few copies of the 2nd statutory declaration to distribute to the reporters.
Q 33. What happened next?
A. At about 10.00 am Mr. Arunampalam and myself took the lift down to the main lobby where we met about 4 or 5 reporters. Mr. Arunampalam talked to them and gave each of them a copy of the 2nd statutory declaration. He told the reporters that I had been forced to sign the 1st statutory declaration under duress and that I now wanted to retract the contents. He would not answer any of the questions the reporters asked him.
Q 34. Where were Deepak and Dinesh during the press conference?
A. I think they left the hotel as they did not join us in the press conference.
Q 35. What happened after the press conference?
A. Mr. Arunampalam then drove me back to the Hilton hotel in his own car. He dropped me off at the lower lobby and I never saw him again.
Q 36. Did you at any time engage Mr. Arunampalam as your lawyer to appear in the press conference?
A. No. I have never met this lawyer before. Deepak was the one who arranged for him to represent me at the press conference. I never told him what to say. All this was arranged by Deepak and not myself.
Q 37. What did you do once you had been dropped off at the Hilton Hotel?
A. I went back to the room and knocked on the door. Deepak and ASP Suresh were there. I waited in the room while Deepak was making phone calls to a Ms. Wong who I think was his secretary. She was apparently with my wife and children at the Pusat Damansara immigration centre helping my wife with the passport applications and renewal. During this period Deepak gave me RM20,000.00 in Hong Kong dollars for my expenditure. He told me he had arranged a tourist van to drive me and my family to Singapore where we were to catch a flight to Bangkok.
Q 38. What time did you leave the Hilton Hotel?
A. At about 1.00 pm Deepak received a phone call from Ms. Wong informing him the passports had all been done and so I left the Hilton Hotel in the van with an Indian driver. This van then drove me to the Pusat Damansara immigration centre. The driver was talking to Ms. Wong during the journey and was receiving instructions where to meet my wife and children. When we arrived at the Pusat Damansara immigration centre, I met my wife and children and we loaded all the luggage into the van and proceeded on our journey to Singapore.
Q 39. What happened when you arrived in Singapore?
A. The driver stopped at the Malaysian immigration at the causeway and we all had to get out of the van to present our passports at the counter. None of our passports were stamped. We then proceeded across the causeway to Singapore immigration who did stamp our passports. After clearing immigration, we were driven straight to Changi Airport.
Q 40. What happened at Changi Airport?
A. I changed some money to get Singapore coins so I could call Deepak to find out about our flight to Bangkok. Deepak told me our tickets were waiting for us at the Silkair counter. I proceeded to this ticket counter and collected our tickets. We all caught the evening flight to Bangkok which left Singapore at about 8.00 pm.
Part 3: The Malaysian police catch up with Bala
The Malaysian police catch up with Bala in Bangkok and ask to meet him. However, they are only interested in talking about the first SD and there is no discussion whatsoever about the second SD. The Malaysian police, therefore, know the truth but chose to bury it rather than take action.
Q 41. Where did you go once you landed in Bangkok?
A. Deepak was supposed to arrange for someone to meet us at the airport but there was no one there. As I was feeling very tired, I hired a taxi to take my family and I to the Shangri La Hotel. We checked in to this hotel and we went to sleep.
Q 42. Did anyone contact you while you were at the Shangri La Hotel?
A. No, because no one knew where we were and I did not have a Thai SIM card so I could not use my hand phone to call anyone.
Q 43. What did you do the next day? (July 5th).
A. I took my wife and children shopping to buy some clothes as we did not have much with us. I also managed to buy a Thai SIM card and communicated with ASP Suresh to inform him where I was.
Deepak had told me that all communication should be through ASP Suresh and that his brother, Rajesh, would be handling everything for me from now on.
Q 44. What did you do the day after that? (July 6th).
A. The Shangri La management informed me the hotel was full that night due to a pre-booked wedding function so we had to leave. I then left and checked in to the Hilton Hotel nearby with my wife and children.
Rajesh had arranged for one of his contacts in Bangkok to assist me and my family in obtaining Indian visas. This contact was a Thai woman who came to the hotel to collect all our passports and the visa fees from me.
Q 45. What happened on July 7th?
A. I received a call in my room from a Special Branch officer. He was calling from the lobby and asked to see me. I then went down to meet him. I recognised him as he used to be a colleague of mine when I was with the Special Branch. He was the liaison officer from the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok.
Q 46. What did you both discuss?
A. He asked me whether I would give permission for the Malaysian Police to record a statement from me and if I was agreeable, he would inform KL about this. I asked him to wait while I called ASP Suresh to inform him about this development.
Q 47. Did you call ASP Suresh?
A. Yes. ASP Suresh told me exactly what to tell the police interviewers. He wanted me to avoid any mention of the involvement of Deepak, Dinesh and himself.
Q 48. So what did he tell you to say?
A. In short, he basically told me to tell the police that after I had made public my 1st Statutory declaration, I felt remorse and wanted to retract it so I decided to call a lawyer called Arunampalam, who I was supposed to have met through my PI work, and arranged to meet him at the Lotus restaurant next to the Nikko Hotel on Jalan Binjai.
When I met up with him at this restaurant he advised me to retract the 1st statutory declaration and that he would draft a second one for me to that effect. I was supposed to say that I went to his office with him where he prepared the 2nd statutory declaration which I signed and that I went to the Prince Hotel the next day with him to release this statutory declaration to the press.
This is what I was told to say to the police when they recorded my statement, according to ASP Suresh.
Q 49. What did you do next?
A. After discussing this with ASP Suresh, I informed the Special Branch officer from the Malaysian Embassy that I was agreeable to my statement being recorded, so this officer informed KL and told me he would come and pick me up from my hotel the next morning and take me to the Malaysian Embassy. In fact we went out for a meal together that evening.
Q 50. Were you picked up the next morning?
A. Yes, this SB officer came to the hotel the next morning and drove me to the Malaysian Embassy where we arrived at about 9.00 am. At about 9.30 am, 3 police officers arrived. They had apparently flown to Bangkok from KL the evening before once they had received confirmation that I was prepared to allow them to record a statement from me.
Q 51. Did you recognise any of these police officers?
A. Yes, there was ACP Muniandy from the Commercial Crimes division of Bukit Aman, another Indian officer and a Malay officer, whose names escape me at the moment.
Q 52. How did they greet you?
A. They were all very pleasant to me. ACP Muniandy asked me which of the two statutory declarations was true and I said the 1st one. He then shook my hand and told me I was a very brave man.
Q 53. Did they record your statement?
A. Yes. They questioned me for about 6 hours. They did not seem to be interested in my 2nd statutory declaration and concentrated their questions in relation to my 1st statutory declaration.
They wanted to know who was involved in it and how I was led into making it.
I explained everything to them from the time I met my lawyer Americk Sidhu in a pub one night with ASP Suresh, M. Puravalen and Sivarasah Rasiah in April or May 2008 up to the time of my first press release.
ACP Muniandy was the officer asking all the questions while his colleague recorded my statement.
Q 54. Did they comment on anything you told them?
A. No. I just repeated what ASP Suresh had told me to tell them about the circumstances which prompted me into affirming the 2nd statutory declaration and they recorded all of it.
Part 4: Bala finds his life turned upside down
Life on the run is not as rosy as most imagine when one’s family has to suffer. Bala finds that the money means very little when family life and the children’s education are sacrificed. He decides to change all that and to regain his normal life but his ‘handlers’ have other ideas. He realises, therefore, he has to break away from them if he really wants to be free.
Q 55. Why did you not tell them the truth about the way the 2nd statutory declaration was made since you had your family with you and they were all safe?
A. I was still in a state of confusion and was still concerned for the safety of my family. I was made aware that Deepak had some very powerful connections, especially after meeting the Malay VIP Datuk at The Curve a few nights previously and his advice was still in my mind.
I was also surprised at how far Deepak’s connections reached as he seemed capable of organising things in different countries and had even arranged a Thai woman to apply for our Indian visas in Bangkok.
At that time I had no idea what to expect so I felt I should follow their advice until I could think more clearly as I had my family to consider as I did not want them to be harmed.
My family and I were also in a foreign country with no access to finances.
Q 56. Did you communicate with anyone after this?
A. Yes. ASP Suresh called me from KL and advised me to change hotels so that the police officers from KL would not be able to contact me again if they required a further statement.
He also informed me to call my nephew in KL and ask him to stop talking to the press and to avoid holding any more candle light vigils as this was making Deepak feel uneasy. I then called my nephew and told him to stop all activities of this nature and he agreed. (See the video here: Stop the campaign, PI tells nephew)
Q 57. Did you change hotels?
A. Yes, we moved to the Beverly Hills Hotel. It was while we were at this new hotel that I received news from Rajesh that our visas could not be done in time as it would take at least 5 working days to process.
Deepak then arranged for a moneychanger, to whom he was acquainted, to pay me 100,000 Thai Baht for my expenses. I then waited for further instructions at this hotel.
Q 58. What happened after that?
A. At about 2.30 pm on the 11th July Rajesh called me to tell me to go to the airport to collect some e-tickets he had arranged for my family and I to fly to Kathmandu, so we packed our bags and headed to the airport.
However when we reached the airport Rajesh called and told me the flight had only been arranged for the next morning at 10.00 am. We then took a taxi back into town and checked into another hotel.
The next morning we returned to the airport, picked up our tickets and flew on a Thai Airways flight to Kathmandu.
Q 59. What happened when you landed in Kathmandu?
A. We were met at the airport by a representative of the Yak & Yeti Hotel who drove us to that hotel.
Q 60. Why was it necessary for you to fly to Kathmandu?
A. Before we could enter India we needed to apply for our Indian visas, which we had not been able to get in Bangkok.
ASP Suresh told me Deepak did not want us to stay in Bangkok any longer as the police knew we were there and that is why he wanted us to leave to Kathmandu so we could apply for our visas there.
Q 61. How long did you spend in Kathmandu?
A. We had applied to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu for our Indian visas. After we managed to obtain 1-month visas for India, we left Kathmandu for New Delhi. This was on the 22nd July. We had spent approximately 10 days in Kathmandu.
Q 62. How long did you spend in Delhi?
A. We stayed in a hotel in Delhi for 2 nights before flying to Madurai en-route to Madras.
Q 63. How did you manage to extend your 1-month visas?
A. Our visas expired on the 21st August 2008. Deepak’s people had promised to get an extension for 1 year for us but nothing was done. So I had to get a 1-month extension for myself and my family till 20th September 2008.
I then sent my wife and children back to KL to stay with my mother-in-law in Segambut without Deepak’s knowledge.
I remained in Madras trying to get my visa extended. Deepak’s agent called Kumar tried to help me but after 5 months nothing had happened. I complained about this to Deepak and ASP Suresh when they visited me in Chennai. Deepak called Kumar who returned the passport to me with a sick certificate saying I could not have left the country due to an illness. This had to be done as I was then in India illegally as my visa had expired.
I then asked for help from my wife’s uncle who is a State Exco Member for Karaikal district. He managed to get my visa extended until 5th September 2009.
Q 64. Did you return to Malaysia during this period?
A. Yes, I returned a few times to sort out some of my personal affairs. Each time I returned I entered the country via Thailand across the Malaysia-Thai border at Bukit Kayu Hitam and left the same way. I did not go through Malaysian immigration.
I did not contact anyone each time I returned as I was afraid Deepak would find out. The only person who knew I had returned to Malaysia was ASP Suresh but he did not let Deepak know. He was upset with me for allowing my wife and children to return to Malaysia but I explained to him that my children needed to be educated and they could not get into a local school in Chennai.
Whenever I returned to Malaysia I used to stay with my wife and mother-in-law in Segambut.
Q 65. Where did your wife stay all the time she was in Malaysia?
A. She stayed with my mother-in-law in Segambut and managed to get my children into a school in Sentul. She did come to Chennai a few times with the children to visit me.
Q 66. Where are your wife and children now?
A. They are at present in Chennai. I managed to enrol my 2 eldest children into a school there. My wife may return to KL so that my youngest child can receive his schooling there. I will have to stay with my eldest two children in Chennai.
Q 67. Can you remember the dates you returned to Malaysia?
A. Yes, I was in KL from the 16.02.2009 to the 05.03.2009. During this period I met Deepak at his office in Sungai Besi. He was very worried I had returned to Malaysia and asked me to go back to Chennai immediately. He warned me that my life would be in danger if I stayed any longer.
The second time I returned to Malaysia was from the 11.04.2009 to the 02.05.2009.
The third time I returned to Malaysia was at the end of July 2009.
Q 68. What did you do when you returned at the end of July?
A. I decided to contact my lawyer Americk Sidhu and explain to him exactly what had happened to me over the past 1 year as I was very unhappy with the situation I was in.
Part 5: I just want the harassment to end
Bala reveals that to date he was paid RM750,000 but the harassment continues and he feels more like a prisoner. He says he has come out of the closet so that the harassment can end and he can lead a normal life again. He just wants his life back.
Q 69. How long had you known ASP Suresh before this incident?
A. I have known him for about 10 years. I met him when he was a senior Investigation Officer at the IPK Kuala Lumpur. I was a private investigator then. ASP Suresh used to ask me to assist him in obtaining fast traces and details on mobile phones as I had contacts in the phone companies and was able to get the information required faster than the police who had to go through official channels.
At one stage I was working for ASP Suresh as a bouncer at his pub in Jalan Imbi.
He had been suspended from his duties as a police officer sometime in 2006 as he was being investigated for corruption by the ACA.
Q 70. Had you met Deepak before this incident?
A. No. But I had done some PI work for his brother Dinesh in the past. I knew Deepak was Dinesh’s brother.
Q 71. You have said that you met a Malay VIP Datuk outside the Volkswagen showroom at The Curve on the night of July 3rd 2008. Who was this gentleman?
A. He was Datuk Nazim Razak, the younger brother of Najib. He was there with his pregnant wife. Although I did not speak to her, I recognised her as being a TV personality. I think she was the host on the ‘Nona’ programme.
Deepak was the one who brought them there to meet me.
That is why ASP Suresh did not want us to meet in a place where there would have been a CCTV camera.
Q 72. When you were in the Hilton Hotel at KL Sentral with Deepak, Dinesh and ASP and after you had signed the 2nd statutory declaration, was there anything said to you which you consider to be significant?
A. Yes there were two things which Deepak told me.
He informed me that Rosmah was very happy with me for retracting my 1st statutory declaration and wanted to have breakfast with me.
When I enquired from Deepak how long I was expected to leave the country for, he informed me it would be until Najib became the next Prime Minister and that I could return after that.
Q 73. When did you contact your lawyer Americk Sidhu?
A. I called him in the middle of July 2009. I was still in India then. I wanted to arrange a meeting with him to inform him what had happened to me and to apologise for all the trouble I had caused. Americk was in the UK when I called him so we arranged to meet in Kuala Lumpur when he returned at the beginning of August.
Q 74. Did you meet him?
A. Yes. We met in early August. At the meeting were two other senior lawyers who Americk had arranged to be present. I told them everything that had happened to me from the time I left Americk’s office in the evening of the 3rd July 2008.
Q 75. Did you realise that this meeting had been secretly videoed?
A. I did not realise I was being filmed. I was however subsequently informed that a recording had been made and this video is safekeeping. I understand this was done to protect me in the event something untoward happened to me again.
Q 76. How did you manage to survive financially all the time you were away?
A. Deepak arranged intermittent payments to be made to me. Some payments were made to my wife directly into her account with the EON Bank in KL.
Other payments were made to ASP Suresh who then arranged payment to me directly or through a friend of mine in Malaysia.
I have copies of some of the cheques issued by Deepak Jaikishan and from his company Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd.
I also have copies of my wife’s bank statements showing the deposits which were made.
I also have copies of my HSBC account in Chennai.
Q 77. How much money did you receive from Deepak from the time you left Malaysia in July 2008 till now?
A. All together approximately RM750,000.00.
Q 78. Do you have any money left?
A. Yes, I have invested approximately RM250,000.00 for my future as I am not sure what will happen to me.
I also spent some money on renovations to my house in Rawang as my wife and youngest child were there. These renovations were in respect of the security of my home only.
The rest of the money was spent on renting accommodation in Chennai, paying for my children’s schooling and for daily expenses.
Q 79. Didn’t Deepak promise you RM5 million?
A. The negotiations were all conducted by ASP Suresh at the Bak Kut Teh stall in Rawang on the night of the 3rd July 2008. I was not involved in these negotiations as I was not concerned about money but the safety of my family.
I have subsequently come to realise that ASP Suresh had a vested interest in all this as I know he has received about the same amount of money from Deepak as I have. His job was to keep me under control. This is why he is annoyed with me for not following his instructions because his income from Deepak would be affected.
Q 80. Why did you wait so long before revealing all this?
A. When I was at the Hilton Hotel at KL Sentral, I had asked Deepak how long I would have to stay out of the country. He told me it would have to be until Najib became the Prime Minister.
I could not return to Malaysia before February 2009 as one Kumar had my passport in his possession in India for 5 months.
I only got my passport back after I complained to Deepak when he visited me in India with ASP Suresh. Deepak called his brother Rajesh to find out what had happened to my passport and within 2 days Kumar asked me to pick it up from him.
I was at this time in India illegally as my visa had expired on the 5th September 2008.
In order to get my visa extended I had to seek assistance from my wife’s uncle the exco member who managed to get it extended for 1 year. Only after this was I able to travel back to Malaysia.
Q 81. What happened when you arrived back in Malaysia in February 2009?
A. When I landed in KL, I called Dinesh to inform him I was back in Malaysia. I was summoned to Deepaks office in Sungai Besi at 11.45 pm the same night and was told in no uncertain terms to leave the country immediately, but I stayed a little longer as I wanted to be with my children and my wife. They didn’t know I had not left immediately.
Q 82. Why did you come back to Malaysia in April 2009?
A. Just to see my wife and children. This time I did not tell anyone I was back and so I was not harassed.
Q 83. Why have you now decided to reveal everything?
A. Because I want to stop all harassments and so that I can return to my normal life.
Q 84. Were the contents of your 1st statutory declaration true?
A. Yes.
Q 85. Were you forced to sign the 1st statutory declaration under duress?
A. Absolutely not. Normal 0 0 1 13 79 Malaysia Today 1 1 97 11.1282 0 0 0 (See the video here: Was PI intimidated or induced?)
Q 86. Were you forced to sign the 2nd statutory declaration under duress?
A. Yes, because I was fearful for the safety of my family and I did not read the contents of the 2nd statutory declaration before I was asked to sign it.
Najib and the Murdered Mongolian
The Malaysian murder case that won't die
In the 90-second video, Balasubramaniam said he had met with businessman Deepak Jaikshnan, the director of a carpet firm, in a bak ku teh (pork rib soup) restaurant in the Rawang suburb where he lived, in which the businessman offered him the money. In an accompanying story in Malaysia Today, Raja Petra displayed photocopies of 50,000 ringgit checks on Public Bank of Malaysia made out by Deepak Jaikshnan.
Asia Sentinel
A Malaysian private investigator in hiding for more than a year after recanting a sensational statement connecting Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to the murder of a Mongolian translator has surfaced to reaffirm his allegations and to say he had been offered a 5 million Malaysian ringgit ($1.49 million) bribe to disappear by a businessman said to be connected to Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor.
The attractive translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu, was murdered by two of Najib’s elite bodyguards in October 2006 in a particularly gruesome fashion. After she was shot twice in the head, her body was blown up with C-4 plastic explosives. Any indication that she and two friends had entered Malaysia disappeared from the immigration department’s records.
The statement by the private detective, P Balasubramaniam, in a YouTube video, appeared on Malaysia Today, the Web site run by Malaysian journalist Raja Petra Kamarudin, who promised far more startling episodes in the near future. As many as five segments, accounting for 20 minutes of revelations, remain to be aired, he said in an e-mail message to Asia Sentinel.
Balasubramaniam said in his original statutory declaration that he had been hired by Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib’s closest friends, to protect him from the wrath of Altantuya after he had jilted her. Razak Baginda was originally charged with the murder along with Najib’s bodyguards, but was acquitted without having to put on a defense.
In the 90-second video, Balasubramaniam said he had met with businessman Deepak Jaikshnan, the director of a carpet firm, in a bak ku teh (pork rib soup) restaurant in the Rawang suburb where he lived, in which the businessman offered him the money. In an accompanying story in Malaysia Today, Raja Petra displayed photocopies of 50,000 ringgit checks on Public Bank of Malaysia made out by Deepak Jaikshnan. Although no indication was given of where Balasubramaniam is now, other sources say he may be in India. In the videotape, he was said to be in the company of three Malaysian lawyers.
Almost immediately on giving his original statement tying Najib to Altantuya in the company of his lawyer and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, the private investigator was hustled to a Kuala Lumpur police station where he wholly and completely recanted the statement, saying he had been coerced into making it by Anwar and others. Then he and his family disappeared. He had not been heard from since.
In his original statement, Balasubramaniam said he was making it because of his “disappointment at the standard of investigations conducted by the authorities into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.” He wrote that he wanted the “relevant authorities to reopen their investigations into this case immediately so that any fresh evidence may be presented to the court prior to submissions at the end of the prosecutions [sic] case.”
According to letters found after Altantuya was murdered, she was attempting to blackmail the married Razak Baginda for $500,000 after he had broken off their affair after spending thousands of dollars on her. The two bodyguards, Cpl. Sirul Azhar Umar and his boss, Chief Insp. Azilah Hadri, were convicted of the murder and have been sentenced to hang. They are currently appealing the sentence. Sirul confessed to the murder, although the confession was never allowed into evidence in the trial, and said the two had been offered 100,000 ringgit to kill the woman.
The marathon trial was notable for the extensive lengths the defense, prosecution and judge all went to in a bid to keep Najib’s name out of it. Although Razak Baginda, in a cautioned statement, said he had gone to Musa Safri, Najib’s chief of staff, to ask for help in keeping Altantuya away from him, neither Musa Safri nor Najib was ever called to give evidence or appear in court. Razak Baginda almost immediately left the country for England after his acquittal. The two bodyguards have rarely been seen in public. When they are produced, their heads are usually covered, leading cynics to speculate that when it comes time to hang them, some other luckless criminals might be forced to substitute for them.
The private investigator said in 2008 that he had extensive conversations with Razak Baginda in the days leading up to Altantuya’s death in which he was told she had been introduced to Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore and that she had been handed to him to look after because Najib “did not want her to harass him since he was now the deputy prime minister.”
It should be noted that on occasion, Malaysia Today has been spectacularly wrong. At one point the Web site said Rosmah Mansor had been present at Altantuya’s murder, although Sirul’s confession made no mention of her and no other evidence has emerged to indicate she had been in the jungle clearing where the translator died. But the Web site has also delivered sensational reports that have been verified.
In the story on the Web site on the same day the YouTube video appeared, Raja Petra recalled that he had been having lunch with Balasubramaniam when the private detective received a phone call from a supposed police supervisor named Suresh to tell him his family’s security was at stake. After he had repudiated his statement, according to Raja Petra, he was whisked to India and hidden. Balasubramaniam, Raja Petra wrote, had no choice but to accept the 50,000 ringgit a month and “retirement” in India or suffer the same fate as Altantuya.
“Little did they know that Bala was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike back. And now he is striking back and has come out to reveal what really happened since the time he signed his first Statutory Declaration, followed by the second one the following day, 16 months ago,” Raja Petra wrote.
The Altantuya murder, with its long-rumored ties to Najib, has had the potential to blow up into one of Malaysia’s biggest scandals ever since the time the woman’s body was found near a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. In his original declaration, Balasubramaniam said he had been told by Razak Baginda that the woman wanted the $500,000 apparently as a commission owed to her from “a deal in Paris.” The document also purported to confirm long-reported rumors that Najib, Razak Baginda and Altantuya had been at a dinner in Paris at a time when a submarine contract was being negotiated. During the trial, a cousin of Altantuya’s said she had seen a picture of the three at dinner, but the prosecution and defense both refused to take the matter further.
That deal was the purchase by the Malaysian government of three submarines at a cost of $1 billion. According to testimony in the Malaysian Parliament, a company controlled by Razak Baginda received a 117 million euro “commission” for the purchase of the submarines from the French military. Interestingly, in late October the son of the late French President Francois Mitterrand and a former minister were convicted of taking bribes relating to the sale of a huge amount of arms to the government of Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos between 1993 and 1998 in defiance of a UN arms embargo. Some 42 persons were accused of selling weapons to the Angolans. Despite calls to have Paris look into the Malaysian submarine transactions for possible evidence of corruption, no action has been taken and it appears unlikely that it will be.
Part 1: The mystery unveiled
What really happened in the 48 hours after PI Bala unveiled his first SD on 3 July 2008? Why did he sign a second SD that contradicted his first SD barely a few hours later? And where did he disappear to for more than a year just hours after signing his second SD? And which SD was signed under duress, the first or second? Today, Malaysia Today will answer all those questions that have been on the minds of Malaysians since July last year. After the press conference held at the PKR headquarters on the 3rd July 2008 you returned to the office of your lawyer where you stayed until about 4.30 pm.
A. Yes that is correct
Q 2. Who was with you in your lawyer’s office at that time?
A. My lawyer Americk Sidhu, ASP Suresh and my ex-assistant Suras Kumar.
Q 3. What time did you leave your lawyers office?
A. About 4.45 pm. I left with ASP Suresh and Suras Kumar. ASP Suresh had his car parked underneath the office. Suras left on his own motorcycle.
Q 4. Where were you intending to go?
A. I had a conversation over the telephone with ASP Tonny from the Brickfields police station earlier that afternoon. He wanted to meet me to discuss the contents of my 1st statutory declaration which I had released at the press conference that morning. He told me he was off-duty at 6.30 pm and suggested we meet informally at an ‘ikan bakar’ stall near the police station. I agreed. ASP Suresh was to drive me there after leaving my lawyers office.
Q 5. What did ASP Tonny want to see you to discuss?
A. He sounded glad that I had released my 1st statutory declaration as he was the investigating officer in the Altantuya murder trial and was therefore involved in the case. I think he just wanted to have an informal chat with me.
Q 6. So you had met him before?
A. Yes, he had interviewed me in relation to the Altantuya murder previously (during the murder investigation).
Q 7. Did you manage to meet with ASP Tonny?
A. No. After leaving my lawyers office, ASP Suresh suggested we go to Cheras instead. I informed ASP Tonny that I could not make it that evening and that I would see him the next day.
Q 8. Why did ASP Suresh want to go to Cheras?
A. He had some business dealing in copper wires and he needed to do some work at his scrap yard there.
Q 9. Was ASP Suresh a police officer at that time?
A. He was an officer with the IPK D9 division CID but had been suspended pending some internal investigations conducted by the ACA.
Q 10. Where did you go after leaving Cheras?
A. ASP Suresh needed to go to Rawang to burn some of his scrap wires. We left Cheras at about 7.30 pm on the way to Rawang. We were still in ASP Suresh’s car.
Q 11. What happened on the journey from Cheras to Rawang?
A. ASP Suresh received some calls on his hand phone from persons I subsequently discovered were Dinesh and Deepak. They apparently wanted ASP Suresh to arrange a meeting with me. At first ASP Suresh did not agree to any meeting but finally agreed to meet in a Bak Kut Teh shop in Rawang.
Q 12. Did you go straight to the Bak Kut Teh shop?
A. No, we first went to the Kuala Garing area to burn some cables and wires. After that we went to the Bak Kut Teh shop where both Deepak and Dinesh were waiting for us.
Q 13. What did you discuss?
A. Deepak started talking to me to try and persuade me to withdraw my 1st statutory declaration. He mentioned to me that there was a red car outside my house in Rawang with military intelligence personnel in it, and that they knew my wife and children were at home.
Q 14. What was your reaction to this piece of information?
A. I was very concerned about this as my wife had called me on my hand phone while I was on my way to Rawang with ASP Suresh to inform me that there was a suspicious looking red car parked opposite our house and that the persons inside appeared to be watching the house. She had been informed of the presence of this car by a neighbour. I told her to lock the gates and to remain inside.
Q 15. What else did Deepak say?
A. He talked to me about the virtues of the present government and what a wonderful woman Rosmah was. He told me he was very good friends with Rosmah and how she visited his shop all the time. He then offered to pay me RM4 million to withdraw my 1st statutory declaration. I was rather stunned but before I could say anything ASP Suresh signaled me to refuse this offer. I said I was not interested in money and so Deepak said he could also organise the release of 5 Hindraf leaders in Kamunting, he could arrange for 528 Tamil schools to become fully-aided schools by the government, that he could get ASP Suresh’s job back and also give him RM4 million as well. He wanted to take me to Putrajaya and kept persisting but I refused to go.
Q 16. What happened next?
A. ASP Suresh asked Deepak to raise the offer to RM5 million and he agreed straight away. He also told me he was willing to organise a monthly payment of RM20,000.00 and that if there was anything else I wanted to put this in writing. He then made a few phone calls on his handphone and then told ASP Suresh to drive me to The Curve near One Damansara Utama.
Q 17. Were you negotiating with Deepak?
A. No, I did not say anything. ASP Suresh was doing all the talking and negotiating. I was more concerned with the safety of my family as I did not know what was going to happen to them.
Q 18. What happened next?
A. Deepak left by himself leaving his brother Dinesh with us. After about half an hour we all left in ASP Suresh’s car. Dinesh was seated in the front passenger seat and I sat in the rear seat. We reached The Curve about half an hour later. The time now was 11.45 pm.
Q 19. Why were you going to The Curve?
A. ASP Suresh told me we were going to meet a VIP there. When we reached the curve I suggested we go to the MacDonald’s restaurant but ASP Suresh said that was not a good idea because there were CCTV cameras there. We then proceeded to the Volkswagen showroom where a Malay gentleman arrived with his pregnant wife and Deepak.
Q 20. Who was this Malay gentleman?
A. I did not recognise him. I was just told he was a VIP Datuk. I did however recognise his wife.
Q 21. Did you speak to this Malay Datuk?
A. Yes, I was introduced to him by Deepak. I was very surprised when I realised who he was.
Q 22. What did this Malay Datuk talk to you about?
A. He told me he knew I had a family and asked me whether I loved them. I replied saying of course I loved my family. He then told me I should take good care of them as anything could happen to them. He then told me that if I wanted to avoid any problems with my family I should just follow Deepak’s instructions and everything would be OK. He told me I had to retract the contents of my 1st statutory declaration. This Malay Datuk then left immediately with his wife.
Part 2: Bala’s prison without bars
Bala is made to sign the 2nd SD and is bundled out of the country. From thereon they keep him on a tight leash and he no longer has control over what he can say or do. He discovers he has just entered a life of imprisonment; although without the normal bars and padlocks but still a prison nevertheless.
Q 23. What happened next?
A. Deepak gave instructions to Dinesh to book a room at the Hilton Hotel KL Sentral. I left with ASP Suresh to my house in Rawang to see my wife and explain to her what was happening. I was concerned for the safety of my family. Deepak had informed me he wanted me to retract my 1st statutory declaration and then to immediately leave the country with my family. I was in a state of shock as to what was happening. I had anticipated that I would be arrested and interrogated after releasing my 1st statutory declaration but I did not anticipate my family would be threatened so I was not prepared for this. As this VIP Datuk was also involved, I realised the situation was very serious.
Q 24. What time did you arrive home after leaving The Curve?
A. ASP Suresh and I arrived at my house at about 2.00 am that morning. I explained everything to my wife and told her we had to pack up and leave Malaysia that very day, as I had been instructed. I also told her to get ready to go to the immigration department that morning to apply for my children’s passports and to renew hers. I had arranged with a friend of mine called Christopher to pick them all up at 8.30 am and to drive them to the Pusat Damansara immigration department that morning with all their luggage.
Q 25. Where did you go next?
A. ASP Suresh then drove me to the site at which he was burning wires where he organised his workers to do the loading onto some 3-ton trucks. We then left for the Hilton Hotel in KL Sentral.
Q 26. What time did you arrive at the Hilton Hotel?
A. We reached the Hotel about 3.00 am. ASP Suresh called Dinesh to find out the room number. Both Deepak and Dinesh met us in the lobby and we all went up to the room. I had been told earlier that my family and I would be sent to Hong Kong. I said I was not happy about being sent to Hong Kong and I would prefer to go to Chennai. Deepak agreed to this. He then tried to arrange a private jet for us. This had to be cancelled when it was realised we would have to go through immigration at the airport. Deepak then suggested we go through Singapore by road, then fly to Bangkok en route to Chennai. I agreed. They continued talking to me about the seriousness of my 1st statutory declaration and that I would have to retract it otherwise they could not guarantee anything if the deal failed. Eventually Dinesh left for home to take a nap.
Q 27. What else did you discuss while in the hotel room?
A. Deepak was telling me how he had become very good friends with Rosmah from the time she used to visit his shop in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. He wouldn’t let me sleep as he was talking all the time.
Q 28. Did anything else happen that morning?
A. Dinesh returned to the hotel looking refreshed. At about 7.45 am someone delivered a draft copy of the 2nd statutory declaration to the hotel. Deepak went down to the lobby to collect it after receiving a call on his hand phone. Sometime later a Commissioner for Oaths arrived. He was a Malay man. I was asked to sign this statutory declaration in front of this commissioner for oaths and he attested my signature. He asked me if I knew where his office was and I said I did not. He then told Deepak to make sure he showed me where his office was on the way to the Prince Hotel. I was never given an opportunity to read the contents of this statutory declaration.
Q 29. Did you know at this stage that you would be taken to the Prince Hotel?
A. Yes. Deepak had informed me that he would be organising a press conference at the Prince Hotel later that morning and that he would make sure a lawyer represented me. He told me not to worry and that I would not have to say anything, just leave it up to the lawyer to talk to the press.
Q 30. What time did you leave the Hilton Hotel?
A. About 8.45 am. Deepak, Dinesh and I left together. I went with Dinesh in his BMW while Deepak went on his own. Dinesh did not show me where the Commissioner for Oaths office was.
Q 31. What time did you reach the Prince Hotel?
A. We arrived at the Prince Hotel at about 9.15 am and drove up the ramp to the car park where we waited for further instructions from Deepak who was apparently downstairs by that time. Eventually Dinesh received a call on his hand phone and he escorted me to a lift which took us down to what looked like a type of lobby on an upper level.
Q 32. Did you meet anyone in this lobby area?
A. Yes. Deepak was waiting in this lobby with another Indian man. This Indian man was introduced to me as one Mr. Arunampalam, a lawyer. This lawyer spoke to me and told me to just keep quiet in the press conference arranged for us in the main lobby. He told me not to talk to any of the reporters under any circumstances and that he would do all the talking. Deepak then told Arunampalam to answer not more than 3 questions from the reporters waiting downstairs and handed him a few copies of the 2nd statutory declaration to distribute to the reporters.
Q 33. What happened next?
A. At about 10.00 am Mr. Arunampalam and myself took the lift down to the main lobby where we met about 4 or 5 reporters. Mr. Arunampalam talked to them and gave each of them a copy of the 2nd statutory declaration. He told the reporters that I had been forced to sign the 1st statutory declaration under duress and that I now wanted to retract the contents. He would not answer any of the questions the reporters asked him.
Q 34. Where were Deepak and Dinesh during the press conference?
A. I think they left the hotel as they did not join us in the press conference.
Q 35. What happened after the press conference?
A. Mr. Arunampalam then drove me back to the Hilton hotel in his own car. He dropped me off at the lower lobby and I never saw him again.
Q 36. Did you at any time engage Mr. Arunampalam as your lawyer to appear in the press conference?
A. No. I have never met this lawyer before. Deepak was the one who arranged for him to represent me at the press conference. I never told him what to say. All this was arranged by Deepak and not myself.
Q 37. What did you do once you had been dropped off at the Hilton Hotel?
A. I went back to the room and knocked on the door. Deepak and ASP Suresh were there. I waited in the room while Deepak was making phone calls to a Ms. Wong who I think was his secretary. She was apparently with my wife and children at the Pusat Damansara immigration centre helping my wife with the passport applications and renewal. During this period Deepak gave me RM20,000.00 in Hong Kong dollars for my expenditure. He told me he had arranged a tourist van to drive me and my family to Singapore where we were to catch a flight to Bangkok.
Q 38. What time did you leave the Hilton Hotel?
A. At about 1.00 pm Deepak received a phone call from Ms. Wong informing him the passports had all been done and so I left the Hilton Hotel in the van with an Indian driver. This van then drove me to the Pusat Damansara immigration centre. The driver was talking to Ms. Wong during the journey and was receiving instructions where to meet my wife and children. When we arrived at the Pusat Damansara immigration centre, I met my wife and children and we loaded all the luggage into the van and proceeded on our journey to Singapore.
Q 39. What happened when you arrived in Singapore?
A. The driver stopped at the Malaysian immigration at the causeway and we all had to get out of the van to present our passports at the counter. None of our passports were stamped. We then proceeded across the causeway to Singapore immigration who did stamp our passports. After clearing immigration, we were driven straight to Changi Airport.
Q 40. What happened at Changi Airport?
A. I changed some money to get Singapore coins so I could call Deepak to find out about our flight to Bangkok. Deepak told me our tickets were waiting for us at the Silkair counter. I proceeded to this ticket counter and collected our tickets. We all caught the evening flight to Bangkok which left Singapore at about 8.00 pm.
Part 3: The Malaysian police catch up with Bala
The Malaysian police catch up with Bala in Bangkok and ask to meet him. However, they are only interested in talking about the first SD and there is no discussion whatsoever about the second SD. The Malaysian police, therefore, know the truth but chose to bury it rather than take action.
Q 41. Where did you go once you landed in Bangkok?
A. Deepak was supposed to arrange for someone to meet us at the airport but there was no one there. As I was feeling very tired, I hired a taxi to take my family and I to the Shangri La Hotel. We checked in to this hotel and we went to sleep.
Q 42. Did anyone contact you while you were at the Shangri La Hotel?
A. No, because no one knew where we were and I did not have a Thai SIM card so I could not use my hand phone to call anyone.
Q 43. What did you do the next day? (July 5th).
A. I took my wife and children shopping to buy some clothes as we did not have much with us. I also managed to buy a Thai SIM card and communicated with ASP Suresh to inform him where I was.
Deepak had told me that all communication should be through ASP Suresh and that his brother, Rajesh, would be handling everything for me from now on.
Q 44. What did you do the day after that? (July 6th).
A. The Shangri La management informed me the hotel was full that night due to a pre-booked wedding function so we had to leave. I then left and checked in to the Hilton Hotel nearby with my wife and children.
Rajesh had arranged for one of his contacts in Bangkok to assist me and my family in obtaining Indian visas. This contact was a Thai woman who came to the hotel to collect all our passports and the visa fees from me.
Q 45. What happened on July 7th?
A. I received a call in my room from a Special Branch officer. He was calling from the lobby and asked to see me. I then went down to meet him. I recognised him as he used to be a colleague of mine when I was with the Special Branch. He was the liaison officer from the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok.
Q 46. What did you both discuss?
A. He asked me whether I would give permission for the Malaysian Police to record a statement from me and if I was agreeable, he would inform KL about this. I asked him to wait while I called ASP Suresh to inform him about this development.
Q 47. Did you call ASP Suresh?
A. Yes. ASP Suresh told me exactly what to tell the police interviewers. He wanted me to avoid any mention of the involvement of Deepak, Dinesh and himself.
Q 48. So what did he tell you to say?
A. In short, he basically told me to tell the police that after I had made public my 1st Statutory declaration, I felt remorse and wanted to retract it so I decided to call a lawyer called Arunampalam, who I was supposed to have met through my PI work, and arranged to meet him at the Lotus restaurant next to the Nikko Hotel on Jalan Binjai.
When I met up with him at this restaurant he advised me to retract the 1st statutory declaration and that he would draft a second one for me to that effect. I was supposed to say that I went to his office with him where he prepared the 2nd statutory declaration which I signed and that I went to the Prince Hotel the next day with him to release this statutory declaration to the press.
This is what I was told to say to the police when they recorded my statement, according to ASP Suresh.
Q 49. What did you do next?
A. After discussing this with ASP Suresh, I informed the Special Branch officer from the Malaysian Embassy that I was agreeable to my statement being recorded, so this officer informed KL and told me he would come and pick me up from my hotel the next morning and take me to the Malaysian Embassy. In fact we went out for a meal together that evening.
Q 50. Were you picked up the next morning?
A. Yes, this SB officer came to the hotel the next morning and drove me to the Malaysian Embassy where we arrived at about 9.00 am. At about 9.30 am, 3 police officers arrived. They had apparently flown to Bangkok from KL the evening before once they had received confirmation that I was prepared to allow them to record a statement from me.
Q 51. Did you recognise any of these police officers?
A. Yes, there was ACP Muniandy from the Commercial Crimes division of Bukit Aman, another Indian officer and a Malay officer, whose names escape me at the moment.
Q 52. How did they greet you?
A. They were all very pleasant to me. ACP Muniandy asked me which of the two statutory declarations was true and I said the 1st one. He then shook my hand and told me I was a very brave man.
Q 53. Did they record your statement?
A. Yes. They questioned me for about 6 hours. They did not seem to be interested in my 2nd statutory declaration and concentrated their questions in relation to my 1st statutory declaration.
They wanted to know who was involved in it and how I was led into making it.
I explained everything to them from the time I met my lawyer Americk Sidhu in a pub one night with ASP Suresh, M. Puravalen and Sivarasah Rasiah in April or May 2008 up to the time of my first press release.
ACP Muniandy was the officer asking all the questions while his colleague recorded my statement.
Q 54. Did they comment on anything you told them?
A. No. I just repeated what ASP Suresh had told me to tell them about the circumstances which prompted me into affirming the 2nd statutory declaration and they recorded all of it.
Part 4: Bala finds his life turned upside down
Life on the run is not as rosy as most imagine when one’s family has to suffer. Bala finds that the money means very little when family life and the children’s education are sacrificed. He decides to change all that and to regain his normal life but his ‘handlers’ have other ideas. He realises, therefore, he has to break away from them if he really wants to be free.
Q 55. Why did you not tell them the truth about the way the 2nd statutory declaration was made since you had your family with you and they were all safe?
A. I was still in a state of confusion and was still concerned for the safety of my family. I was made aware that Deepak had some very powerful connections, especially after meeting the Malay VIP Datuk at The Curve a few nights previously and his advice was still in my mind.
I was also surprised at how far Deepak’s connections reached as he seemed capable of organising things in different countries and had even arranged a Thai woman to apply for our Indian visas in Bangkok.
At that time I had no idea what to expect so I felt I should follow their advice until I could think more clearly as I had my family to consider as I did not want them to be harmed.
My family and I were also in a foreign country with no access to finances.
Q 56. Did you communicate with anyone after this?
A. Yes. ASP Suresh called me from KL and advised me to change hotels so that the police officers from KL would not be able to contact me again if they required a further statement.
He also informed me to call my nephew in KL and ask him to stop talking to the press and to avoid holding any more candle light vigils as this was making Deepak feel uneasy. I then called my nephew and told him to stop all activities of this nature and he agreed. (See the video here: Stop the campaign, PI tells nephew)
Q 57. Did you change hotels?
A. Yes, we moved to the Beverly Hills Hotel. It was while we were at this new hotel that I received news from Rajesh that our visas could not be done in time as it would take at least 5 working days to process.
Deepak then arranged for a moneychanger, to whom he was acquainted, to pay me 100,000 Thai Baht for my expenses. I then waited for further instructions at this hotel.
Q 58. What happened after that?
A. At about 2.30 pm on the 11th July Rajesh called me to tell me to go to the airport to collect some e-tickets he had arranged for my family and I to fly to Kathmandu, so we packed our bags and headed to the airport.
However when we reached the airport Rajesh called and told me the flight had only been arranged for the next morning at 10.00 am. We then took a taxi back into town and checked into another hotel.
The next morning we returned to the airport, picked up our tickets and flew on a Thai Airways flight to Kathmandu.
Q 59. What happened when you landed in Kathmandu?
A. We were met at the airport by a representative of the Yak & Yeti Hotel who drove us to that hotel.
Q 60. Why was it necessary for you to fly to Kathmandu?
A. Before we could enter India we needed to apply for our Indian visas, which we had not been able to get in Bangkok.
ASP Suresh told me Deepak did not want us to stay in Bangkok any longer as the police knew we were there and that is why he wanted us to leave to Kathmandu so we could apply for our visas there.
Q 61. How long did you spend in Kathmandu?
A. We had applied to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu for our Indian visas. After we managed to obtain 1-month visas for India, we left Kathmandu for New Delhi. This was on the 22nd July. We had spent approximately 10 days in Kathmandu.
Q 62. How long did you spend in Delhi?
A. We stayed in a hotel in Delhi for 2 nights before flying to Madurai en-route to Madras.
Q 63. How did you manage to extend your 1-month visas?
A. Our visas expired on the 21st August 2008. Deepak’s people had promised to get an extension for 1 year for us but nothing was done. So I had to get a 1-month extension for myself and my family till 20th September 2008.
I then sent my wife and children back to KL to stay with my mother-in-law in Segambut without Deepak’s knowledge.
I remained in Madras trying to get my visa extended. Deepak’s agent called Kumar tried to help me but after 5 months nothing had happened. I complained about this to Deepak and ASP Suresh when they visited me in Chennai. Deepak called Kumar who returned the passport to me with a sick certificate saying I could not have left the country due to an illness. This had to be done as I was then in India illegally as my visa had expired.
I then asked for help from my wife’s uncle who is a State Exco Member for Karaikal district. He managed to get my visa extended until 5th September 2009.
Q 64. Did you return to Malaysia during this period?
A. Yes, I returned a few times to sort out some of my personal affairs. Each time I returned I entered the country via Thailand across the Malaysia-Thai border at Bukit Kayu Hitam and left the same way. I did not go through Malaysian immigration.
I did not contact anyone each time I returned as I was afraid Deepak would find out. The only person who knew I had returned to Malaysia was ASP Suresh but he did not let Deepak know. He was upset with me for allowing my wife and children to return to Malaysia but I explained to him that my children needed to be educated and they could not get into a local school in Chennai.
Whenever I returned to Malaysia I used to stay with my wife and mother-in-law in Segambut.
Q 65. Where did your wife stay all the time she was in Malaysia?
A. She stayed with my mother-in-law in Segambut and managed to get my children into a school in Sentul. She did come to Chennai a few times with the children to visit me.
Q 66. Where are your wife and children now?
A. They are at present in Chennai. I managed to enrol my 2 eldest children into a school there. My wife may return to KL so that my youngest child can receive his schooling there. I will have to stay with my eldest two children in Chennai.
Q 67. Can you remember the dates you returned to Malaysia?
A. Yes, I was in KL from the 16.02.2009 to the 05.03.2009. During this period I met Deepak at his office in Sungai Besi. He was very worried I had returned to Malaysia and asked me to go back to Chennai immediately. He warned me that my life would be in danger if I stayed any longer.
The second time I returned to Malaysia was from the 11.04.2009 to the 02.05.2009.
The third time I returned to Malaysia was at the end of July 2009.
Q 68. What did you do when you returned at the end of July?
A. I decided to contact my lawyer Americk Sidhu and explain to him exactly what had happened to me over the past 1 year as I was very unhappy with the situation I was in.
Part 5: I just want the harassment to end
Bala reveals that to date he was paid RM750,000 but the harassment continues and he feels more like a prisoner. He says he has come out of the closet so that the harassment can end and he can lead a normal life again. He just wants his life back.
Q 69. How long had you known ASP Suresh before this incident?
A. I have known him for about 10 years. I met him when he was a senior Investigation Officer at the IPK Kuala Lumpur. I was a private investigator then. ASP Suresh used to ask me to assist him in obtaining fast traces and details on mobile phones as I had contacts in the phone companies and was able to get the information required faster than the police who had to go through official channels.
At one stage I was working for ASP Suresh as a bouncer at his pub in Jalan Imbi.
He had been suspended from his duties as a police officer sometime in 2006 as he was being investigated for corruption by the ACA.
Q 70. Had you met Deepak before this incident?
A. No. But I had done some PI work for his brother Dinesh in the past. I knew Deepak was Dinesh’s brother.
Q 71. You have said that you met a Malay VIP Datuk outside the Volkswagen showroom at The Curve on the night of July 3rd 2008. Who was this gentleman?
A. He was Datuk Nazim Razak, the younger brother of Najib. He was there with his pregnant wife. Although I did not speak to her, I recognised her as being a TV personality. I think she was the host on the ‘Nona’ programme.
Deepak was the one who brought them there to meet me.
That is why ASP Suresh did not want us to meet in a place where there would have been a CCTV camera.
Q 72. When you were in the Hilton Hotel at KL Sentral with Deepak, Dinesh and ASP and after you had signed the 2nd statutory declaration, was there anything said to you which you consider to be significant?
A. Yes there were two things which Deepak told me.
He informed me that Rosmah was very happy with me for retracting my 1st statutory declaration and wanted to have breakfast with me.
When I enquired from Deepak how long I was expected to leave the country for, he informed me it would be until Najib became the next Prime Minister and that I could return after that.
Q 73. When did you contact your lawyer Americk Sidhu?
A. I called him in the middle of July 2009. I was still in India then. I wanted to arrange a meeting with him to inform him what had happened to me and to apologise for all the trouble I had caused. Americk was in the UK when I called him so we arranged to meet in Kuala Lumpur when he returned at the beginning of August.
Q 74. Did you meet him?
A. Yes. We met in early August. At the meeting were two other senior lawyers who Americk had arranged to be present. I told them everything that had happened to me from the time I left Americk’s office in the evening of the 3rd July 2008.
Q 75. Did you realise that this meeting had been secretly videoed?
A. I did not realise I was being filmed. I was however subsequently informed that a recording had been made and this video is safekeeping. I understand this was done to protect me in the event something untoward happened to me again.
Q 76. How did you manage to survive financially all the time you were away?
A. Deepak arranged intermittent payments to be made to me. Some payments were made to my wife directly into her account with the EON Bank in KL.
Other payments were made to ASP Suresh who then arranged payment to me directly or through a friend of mine in Malaysia.
I have copies of some of the cheques issued by Deepak Jaikishan and from his company Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd.
I also have copies of my wife’s bank statements showing the deposits which were made.
I also have copies of my HSBC account in Chennai.
Q 77. How much money did you receive from Deepak from the time you left Malaysia in July 2008 till now?
A. All together approximately RM750,000.00.
Q 78. Do you have any money left?
A. Yes, I have invested approximately RM250,000.00 for my future as I am not sure what will happen to me.
I also spent some money on renovations to my house in Rawang as my wife and youngest child were there. These renovations were in respect of the security of my home only.
The rest of the money was spent on renting accommodation in Chennai, paying for my children’s schooling and for daily expenses.
Q 79. Didn’t Deepak promise you RM5 million?
A. The negotiations were all conducted by ASP Suresh at the Bak Kut Teh stall in Rawang on the night of the 3rd July 2008. I was not involved in these negotiations as I was not concerned about money but the safety of my family.
I have subsequently come to realise that ASP Suresh had a vested interest in all this as I know he has received about the same amount of money from Deepak as I have. His job was to keep me under control. This is why he is annoyed with me for not following his instructions because his income from Deepak would be affected.
Q 80. Why did you wait so long before revealing all this?
A. When I was at the Hilton Hotel at KL Sentral, I had asked Deepak how long I would have to stay out of the country. He told me it would have to be until Najib became the Prime Minister.
I could not return to Malaysia before February 2009 as one Kumar had my passport in his possession in India for 5 months.
I only got my passport back after I complained to Deepak when he visited me in India with ASP Suresh. Deepak called his brother Rajesh to find out what had happened to my passport and within 2 days Kumar asked me to pick it up from him.
I was at this time in India illegally as my visa had expired on the 5th September 2008.
In order to get my visa extended I had to seek assistance from my wife’s uncle the exco member who managed to get it extended for 1 year. Only after this was I able to travel back to Malaysia.
Q 81. What happened when you arrived back in Malaysia in February 2009?
A. When I landed in KL, I called Dinesh to inform him I was back in Malaysia. I was summoned to Deepaks office in Sungai Besi at 11.45 pm the same night and was told in no uncertain terms to leave the country immediately, but I stayed a little longer as I wanted to be with my children and my wife. They didn’t know I had not left immediately.
Q 82. Why did you come back to Malaysia in April 2009?
A. Just to see my wife and children. This time I did not tell anyone I was back and so I was not harassed.
Q 83. Why have you now decided to reveal everything?
A. Because I want to stop all harassments and so that I can return to my normal life.
Q 84. Were the contents of your 1st statutory declaration true?
A. Yes.
Q 85. Were you forced to sign the 1st statutory declaration under duress?
A. Absolutely not. Normal 0 0 1 13 79 Malaysia Today 1 1 97 11.1282 0 0 0 (See the video here: Was PI intimidated or induced?)
Q 86. Were you forced to sign the 2nd statutory declaration under duress?
A. Yes, because I was fearful for the safety of my family and I did not read the contents of the 2nd statutory declaration before I was asked to sign it.
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