Businessperson fails to reinstate lawsuit against Najib, Rosmah and two firms

 

The Court of Appeal today denied carpet businessperson Deepak Jaikishan’s appeal to reinstate a lawsuit against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor and two companies.

A three-person panel chaired by Hanipah Farikullah upheld the ruling by the  High Court in Kuala Lumpur to strike out Deepak’s legal action linked to a property agreement that allegedly caused losses to the businessperson’s company.

When contacted today, lawyer David Mathews, who represented Najib and Rosmah, confirmed the outcome of the appeal proceedings. Other members of the panel today were judges Azizah Nawawi and See Mee Chun.

Deepak appealed against the High Court decision on July 17 last year, which allowed an application by the four defendants - Najib and Rosmah, as well as Boustead Holdings Bhd and its subsidiary, Bakti Wira Development Sdn Bhd - to strike out Deepak’s suit.

During the Court of Appeal proceedings today, Hanipah ruled that there was no merit in Deepak’s appeal to reinstate the suit.

She said this is because the lower court had gone through extensively the issues in the suit prior to allowing the striking-out bid by Najib, Rosmah and the two firms.

She emphasised that there was no appealable error that warranted the panel’s intervention because the lower court made the right finding that amendments could not rectify the statement of claim in Deepak’s suit.

The panel also ordered Deepak to pay RM7,000 costs to Najib and Rosmah, as well as pay the same amount to Boustead Holdings and Bakti Wira Development.

Deepak to appeal to Federal Court

Counsel Robert Lazar acted for Boustead and Bakti Wira, while Magita Hari Mogan appeared for Deepak.

When contacted by Malaysiakini this afternoon, Deepak said that he would be appealing to the Federal Court.

“Yes. We will be filing an application (for leave to appeal) to the Federal Court,” the businessperson said.

On Oct 12, 2018, Deepak filed the suit, alleging that he incurred losses due to purported conspiracy, fraud and undue influence by the defendants in a land deal.

He alleged that as the director and majority shareholder of Astacanggih Sdn Bhd, he had signed a property deal with the director and majority shareholder of Awan Megah (M) Sdn Bhd, Raja Ropiaah Raja Abdullah, in relation to three pieces of land, namely 181.9ha in Mukim Kapar, Klang and in Mukim Bukit Raja in Petaling, Selangor.

He alleged that an RM13 million deposit was paid by Astacanggih to Awan Megah and that an RM72.5 million land bond from the Kuwait Finance House (M) Bhd was submitted to the government.

He contended that Awan Megah declined to produce the original land titles for transfer to Astacanggih.

Deepak claimed that he was forced to sell 80 percent (16 million units) of his shares in Astacanggih to Boustead Holdings through Wira development, due to the alleged conspiracy and interference from Najib and Rosmah.

He sought RM600 million, RM50 million and RM26 million in general, exemplary and aggravated damages, respectively. - Mkini