PI Bala: I wasn’t promised RM700,000

Raja Petra Kamarudin is writing bullshit stories, says private investigator P Balasubramaniam.

PETALING JAYA: Private investigator P Balasubramaniam swears he was not promised payment for the 2008 statutory declaration (SD) linking Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

Bala said this in response to claims by blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had personally promised the private investigator RM700,000 if he agreed to come up with the first SD by July 1, 2008.

Citing a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) source, Raja Petra had said Anwar wanted the SD to implicate Najib, who was then defence minister, so that his Sept 16 plan of becoming prime minister would succeed.

“I swear on my mother, I do not know anything about this RM700,000. All these accusations against me are bullshit,” Bala told FMT today.

“In fact, I had only met Anwar twice: once in 1994, when I was on official duty, and the second was the day I signed my first SD during the [July 3, 2008] press conference. I never met him again afterwards, either.”

Bala stressed that the question of money never came up in his preparation of the first SD, denying even the RM100,000 he allegedly received from lawyer Puravelan.

“My purpose has always been the truth, never money. What can I do with money? I can’t bring it to my grave,” he said.

But Raja Petra had claimed that Bala had contacted businessman Deepak Jaikishan after he did not receive the full payment of the RM700,000 – an encounter that eventually led to the second SD, which reversed all claims made in the first one.

Responding to this, Bala said: “Raja Petra has nothing to write about, so he comes up with bullshit. He’s my friend, but I don’t know how to advise him.”

He conceded that he had met with Deepak, but reiterated that the ensuing second SD was done out of duress.

“I changed my statement out of duress, but then when Najib became prime minister in 2009, I openly said what happened to me, and my statement has been consistent since then.”

Bala also admitted to having received payment from Deepak after making the second SD, and said that the money had been used for travel, food expenses as well as the education of his children.

Not paid by PKR

Meanwhile, Bala dismissed rumours that his return to Malaysia was paid for by PKR, whom he had pledged support for.

“The flight back to Malaysia was my own money, because some of the money Deepak gave me, I kept. Nobody paid for my trip,” he said.

“I’m not a Pakatan [Rakyat] member. I’m not affiliated with any party in the coalition, not with DAP, PKR or PAS. But I support them because my heart says Malaysia needs change.”