Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor are among nine defendants attempting to strike out a suit filed by the late P Balasubramaniam’s family, which would reveal their alleged roles in sending the late private detective, his wife and kids into forced exile.

Lawyer Americk Singh, who is appearing for Balasubramaniam’s widow, A Santamil Selvi and their three children, told The Malaysian Insider the hearing had been set for Nov 20 before High Court Judge Datuk Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.

Among the grounds cited by the defendants are that Balasubramaniam’s family has no reasonable cause of action, and that their action is an abuse of the court process.

The Malaysian Insider learnt that if the defendants were successful in striking out the suit, then the merits of the case would never be known to the public.

This would include why Balasubramaniam retracted his first sworn statement and why he and his family left the country for India.

Santamil and her children are suing for losses suffered between July 2008 and early last year following Balasubramaniam’s retraction of his first statutory declaration (SD).

Balasubramaniam died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.

Apart from Najib and Rosmah, the other defendants in the suit are Najib’s brothers Datuk Ahmad Johari Razak and Datuk Mohd Nazim Razak, senior lawyer Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, his son Sunil Abraham, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat, lawyer M Arunapalam and carpet dealer Deepak Jaikshan.

In the suit, the family said the defendants caused Balasubramaniam’s second SD “to be drafted without the instructions of the deceased and further caused the deceased to sign the same under threat and inducement”. — The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on October 15, 2014.

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