PI Bala to be cremated today, says Sivarasa

KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Former private investigator P. Balasubramaniam has been confirmed to have died of a heart attack and will be cremated in Cheras here this afternoon, Subang MP R. Sivarasa said today.

Balasubramaniam, 53, returned to Malaysia a few weeks ago after years of self-exile for providing sworn statements related to the 2006 high-profile murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“Body released to family late last night after autopsy,” said Sivarasa in a text message to The Malaysian Insidertoday, adding a post-mortem by the Sungai Buloh hospital showed that Balasubramaniam(picture) died of a massive heart attack yesterday afternoon.

He added that the last rites would be held at Balasubramaniam’s home in Rawang at 1pm today, followed by the cremation in Cheras.

“I helped out yesterday at Sg Blh Hospital (it’s within Subang constituency anyway) out of a sense of duty to help Bala’s family after all his and their sacrifice,” said Sivarasa.

Balasubramaniam died at a clinic in Rawang after he complained of chest pains in the morning, leaving a wife and three children aged 16, 15 and 11 respectively.

The controversial ex-private eye was to undergo a bypass surgery in two weeks’ time.

Early this month, Balasubramaniam was reported to have been diagnosed with a heart condition after three of his arteries were found to be clogged.

Balasubramaniam came out of hiding and returned to Malaysia last month, saying that he wanted to help campaign for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ahead of Election 2013.

Balasubramaniam or “PI Bala” first entered the limelight in 2008 for accusing several top federal government personalities of being involved in the murder of Altantuya in his first statutory declaration (SD) on the brutal killing.

But when Balasubramaniam retracted the SD the following day and signed a new one in which the names of these personalities were omitted, he found himself in an even deeper tangle and was forced to flee the country.

A year later, in 2009, he reappeared in the limelight when he claimed that the second SD had been signed under duress and prepared without his knowledge.

The Bar Council said last January that it had launched an investigation on the identity of the lawyers involved in the second SD and possible misconduct in the drafting of the sworn statement.