Deepak: PI Bala and I on the same team

Deepak Jaikishan said he would approach P Balasubramaniam in the next few days over drinks to discuss the matter of the statutory declaration.

PETALING JAYA: Businessman Deepak Jaikishan today did not rule out the idea of collaborating with former private investigator P Balasubramaniam to reveal “the truth” behind the 2006 murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“It’s a bit too soon for me to say [if we shall collaborate], but we are definitely on the same team. We both want justice. He is a very brave man, and I pray that his endeavours are successful,” Deepak told FMT when contacted today.

He said he would approach Bala, as he is popularly known, for a chat over drinks in the next few days.

“We have a common goal, which is that justice prevails. It’s not easy, what we are doing, as we are accusing higher authorities of committing a criminal act,” said Deepak.

When asked whether he would also call Bala as a witness for his defamation suit against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Deepak said “yes”.

“Yes. It had never occurred to me before this, but now that you asked, yes, we definitely would like him to come as a witness to the suit,” said the carpet dealer.

Last night, Bala returned to Malaysia after almost five years of having mysteriously fled the country.

Upon his arrival at the airport, he immediately swore that the first statutory declaration (SD) he made in 2008, which implicated Najib in Altantuya’s murder, was the truth.

He claimed that “circumstances” had forced him to retract the allegations made in the first SD, and he would reveal the whole truth “inch by inch”.

Deepak had previously told the media that it was he who persuaded Bala to reverse the first SD, as a favour for Rosmah Mansor, Deepak’s close associate once and the wife of the prime minister.

But despite Deepak’s role in the affair, Bala told reporters last night that he would not actively seek collaboration with the businessman.

“[But] if he [Deepak] comes forward and wants to work with me, I am okay with it. But I won’t go looking for him,” Bala said.

Meanwhile, in a press statement today, Deepak said: “I urge PI Bala to divulge the names of the people involved and why it is that only employees of Najib and Rosmah were involved and on whose orders and ‘main reason’ did they commit this heinous crime on a pregnant Mongolian woman.”

“I also urge our former inspector-general of police [Musa Hassan] to confirm that Najib had called him and interfered in this murder investigation at that time…

“Bala has my complete support and prayers and I hope that the spirit of Altantuya can ‘rest in peace’ once the ‘real murderers’ are found guilty.”