Who is Deepak Jaikishan?

'Carpetman' Deepak Jaikishan has stoked the curiosity of many Malaysians, with his 'timely' or 'untimely' decision to expose the prime minister and his spouse.

FEATURE

Who really is Deepak Jaikishan a/l Jaikishan Rewachand? To begin with, he is 40 years old, unmarried and a “successful” Malaysian Indian businessman.

He is perhaps best known now as the “carpetman”, although i3investor.com describes him as coming from a family “pioneering” in property development and investment.

But it also notes that he’s been in carpet manufacturing for 15 years.

Under his leadership, both his Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd and Tek Holding Sdn Bhd (the property development and investment company), chalked billions. Bursa Malaysia notes that from 2000 to 2009, Deepak had completed  property investment projects totalling about RM3 billion.

In the carpet field, he initiated and successfully acquired the largest manufacturing plant in Malaysia known as Noble Carpet Sdn Bhd.

In the year 2000, this manufacturing unit was said to be the only one that produced its own carpet yarn. In 2003 he set up the biggest manufacturing plant (Premier Weavers) with the latest weaving technology in Malaysia.

Deepak is one of five directors in Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd, and an equal shareholder too. It’s this company that he’s been most associated with of late.

‘Rosmah’s like my elder sister’
Why the focus on this particular man?

Because Deepak has had close ties with the family of Najib Tun Razak, the Malaysian Prime Minister.

But more importantly now perhaps is the fact that his name first saw the limelight in the Altantuya murder case.

Altantuya, who was named in French police documents as a translator during the talks to purchase the Scorpene submarines for the Malaysian Ministry of Defence was murdered in October 2006 by two members of an elite police unit. The two were later convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

Deepak’s link was to the disappearance of PI Balasubramaniam after submitting two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) on the Altantuya incident. The first one implicated Najib and Rosmah while the second claimed otherwise. Deepak was named when PI Bala vanished after submitting a second SD.

How did Deepak get close to the PM?
According to Deepak, he supplied carpets and other interior products for the PM’s family.

Explaining his closeness to the family, he once said: “Rosmah, I treat her like my elder sister”.

But that quote didn’t bring him fame.

His name came up again when a claimed conspiracy by the Kuwait Finance House (KFH) came into play.

KFH is currently suing Jaikishan for an unpaid banking facility amounting to RM170 million.

Through a letter of offer dated Nov 16, 2007, Deepak was awarded RM170 million worth of Islamic financing facilities which consists of :

i) KFH Ijarah Muntahiah BitamlikAsset Backed Financing-i Facility of RM26.6 million.

ii) KFH Ijarah Muntahiah BitamlikAsset Backed Acquisition Financing-i Facility of RM93.4 million.

iii) Interchangeable and Combined Limit Facility not exceeding RM50 million.

‘Najib exceeded his authority’
Shortly after that Deepak – the family friend of Najib and Rosmah – turned whistleblower on the premier’s family.

Why did he suddenly become a turncoat?

Was it the discovery that his company Astacanggih Sdn Bhd had lost a portion of land purchased from Umno senator Raja Roopiah’s Awan Megah (M) Sdn Bhd, that angered him?

According to media reports, Deepak had testified that after obtaining the letter issued by the Defence Ministry’s deputy secretary-general on the transfer of the land to him, he and Awan Megah worked out an agreement to formalise this.

Cebur Megah was the nominee company or third party vehicle, to obtain the 223 acre land while 23 acres of the land would be returned to Raja Roopiah, who is currently a woman leader in Umno.

But something appeared to have happened inbetween and land parcel slipped out of Deepak’s grasp.

Deepak claims that Najib had bypassed the cabinet in deciding to pull back the land, but says little else.

“You could say he (Najib) exceeded his authority (in relation to his decision)” Deepak was reported as saying.

According to Deepak, the land involved was owned by the government and the rightful process was not followed.

“There is no question of any breach of confidentiality (here)…there’s just a lot of fishiness from some people” he was quoted as saying.

Deepak is currently suing Awan Megah (M) Sdn Bhd, the Ministry of Defence and the Pejabat Tanah dan Galian.

Series of coincidences?
Now Deepak is back again in the political spotlight.

His latest ‘fame’ is a two minute video in which he allegedly explains his reasons for ‘exposing’ the premiere and his first lady.

In the video he allegedly links PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and his fellow counterparts such as lawyer R Sivarasa, PKR vice president N Surendran and Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah to his decision to ‘tell the truth’.

In the video, he allegedly mentions that Anwar was the one who offered legal help to him but ‘obviously’ expected a favour in return.

Anwar has however denied all links to Deepak while Sivarasa and Surendran are now Deepak’s lawyers.

Sivarasa claims he warned Anwar of the risks before taking up Deepak’s case. Anwar it appears saw no adverse political implications.

Looking at the happenings in Deepak’s life, one wonders if  all this is just a series of coincidence.