MACC asks Deepak to return with documents, no statement recorded

Deepak claimed that three men came to his office earlier to ask a lot of ‘unneccessary questions’ while he was away. – Picture by Choo Choy May

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 18 – The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) today did not record controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan’s statement in relation to P. Balasubramaniam’s second statutory declaration in 2008 on the 2006 murder of Altantuyaa Shaariibuu.

Deepak said the MACC today asked him to furnish a long list of documents, including those of a financial nature.

“He asked me to give him a lot of documents. So I’ve agreed. We’re going to meet early next week,” he told The Malaysian Insider after the meeting at the anti-graft body’s Putrajaya office.

Deepak claimed that three men came to his office earlier to ask a lot of “unneccessary questions” while he was away.

Earlier today, Deepak told The Malaysian Insider that he expects to reveal everything to the MACC, saying: “Yes, I believe I’ll be revealing everything in writing, the entire facts”.

“They want me to give a statement on the SD2,” he had said, referring to private investigator Balasubramaniam’s second statutory declaration, which contradicted his first sworn statement.

Deepak had recently admitted that he helped to get Balasubramaniam, a private investigator, to repudiate his earlier statutory declaration on the matter, including finding two lawyers to draft the new statement.

The Bar Council is investigating the identity of lawyers and possible misconduct in the drafting of Balasubramaniam’s second sworn statement about the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

A cloud of mystery has hung over the identity of the lawyer who drew up Balasubramaniam’s second SD, dated a day after his first on July 3, 2008, regarding Altantuya’s 2006 murder, for which two elite police commandos have been convicted and are facing death sentences.

Balasubramaniam’s lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu had previously said M. Arunampalam’s role as the lawyer who had drafted the investigator’s second SD had been dispelled by well-connected businessman Deepak, who is also in the centre of the controversy surrounding Balasubramaniam’s two SDs.

Americk said Deepak had cleared Arunampalam ― whom the carpet dealer had engaged to handle his property transactions previously ― as a likely candidate for drafting the second SD.

He also said the clues were all assembled for the Bar Council to act upon and advised the body to check out lawyers who had previously worked for the politicians named in Balasubramaniam’s SD, to question them in an inquiry.

He pointed that only a handful of lawyers would have access to a prominent personality that had been named in Balasubramaniam’s SDs, out of the 14,000 members of the Malaysian Bar.

Senior lawyer Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, who has been linked to the second statutory declaration, has refused to comment on his alleged role in preparing the document.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak denied any involvement in the drafting of Balasubramaniam’s second sworn statement on the 2006 murder of Altantuya.

He said Deepak’s allegations were not true, dismissing them as a non-issue, while saying that the businessman was not a credible person.