‘Rosmah told me to look for Bala’

Deepak Jaikishan alleges that the PM's wife rang him at about 6pm on the day private investigator P Balasubramaniam made the first statutory declaration.

FULL REPORT

KUALA LUMPUR:  Carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishan today claimed that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor told him to look for private investigator P Balasubramaniam on the day the latter’s statutory declaration (SD) was made public.

Revealing the identity of “the female friend” whom he mentioned at his recent press conferences, Deepak claimed that Rosmah called up many people for favours on the day Balasubramaniam disclosed his first SD, which linked Najib to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuyaa Shaariibuu.

“At about 6pm or 7pm that day, Rosmah called me, asking me to help resolve the matter. I don’t know Bala in person, but we have a mutual friend,” he told FMT.

The well-connected businessman repeated his earlier claim that Rosmah was rushing because one of the five individuals involved in the murder case was going to come forward to speak against Najib.

Although he did not mention the date, it is likely that the incident took place on July 3, 2008.

Deepak said he managed to get hold of the private investigator within a few hours of Rosmah’s phone call but the latter was sceptical over what he said.

“He asked to meet with Najib. I went to Najib’s house to discuss this, but Najib did not want to see him.

“Then Rosmah proposed to have Najib’s brother Nazim to meet him.”

Deepak said a meeting between him, Balasubramaniam and Nazim was later held at The Curve, where Nazim asked the private investigator what he wanted in return for making the second SD.

He said Nazim took Balasubramaniam to the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur after the meeting.

He claimed that Najib had arranged for a senior lawyer who is now a Tan Sri to prepare the second SD for Subramaniam.

‘My biggest mistake’
In the second SD issued the next morning, Balasubramaniam retracted all the allegations he had made against Najib, claiming that he was compelled to affirm the first SD under duress.

Deepak said he now regretted getting involved in the case.

“It was the biggest mistake I have made,” he said, adding that he could have saved himself a lot of trouble if he had, like the other friends Rosmah had called, refused to do help her out.

The 40-year-old businessman claimed Balasubramaniam was speaking the truth in the first SD.

Asked how he knew that the premier and his wife were involved in the murder of Altantuya, he said: “I think this is pure fact. I was involved in the case. I knew that.”

He claimed that when Rosmah was asking for his “favour” in the phone call, he already knew the nature of the “favour” because there were already news reports of Balasubramaniam’s SD on the Internet.

Deepak said his friendship with Rosmah, whom he once referred to as “Elder Sister”, deteriorated following a land dispute involving him and Umno senator Raja Roopiah.

Thanks to Rosmah
He claimed that his company, Asta Canggih Sdn Bhd, was the nominee company or third party vehicle in the acquisition of 223 acres of land after he struck an agreement with Raja Roopiah.

Under the agreement, he was supposed to get all but 23 acres of the land, which would be returned to Raja Roopiah.

Deepak claimed that Najib had bypassed the Cabinet in deciding to pull back the land from him.

He alleged that he had been constantly intimidated by government machinery and had lost a lot of business deals with the government,

“I acknowledge that because of (Rosmah), I was able to rise from a carpet dealer to receiving multi-million contracts from government,” he said. “I received a lot of support from her.”

He said he had decided to go on a “long holiday” in Myanmar from Dec 10 to March 11, which is his birthday.