Businessperson G Gnanaraja rejected the defence’s claim that a bag containing RM1 million was never handed to Lim Guan Eng, maintaining that the exchange did take place openly and while Lim was dressed in his official attire as Penang chief minister.
Gnanaraja (above, left), 44, said this under cross-examination by Ramkarpal Singh, who is representing Lim in the corruption trial linked to the Penang major roads and undersea tunnel project involving the Bagan MP.
Ramkarpal put it to the witness that the alleged handover was implausible.
Ramkarpal: I suggest to you that the bag was never handed to Lim as claimed. It defies logic that, as the chief minister at the time, he would go to Publika on a busy Sunday in official attire, carrying a bag supposedly filled with RM1 million. That simply did not happen.
Gnanaraja: It may defy logic, but it happened.
On Aug 27 last year, Gnanaraja told the court he handed a black bag containing RM1 million in cash to Lim while dropping him off at Publika, Hartamas, on Aug 20, 2017.
He said Lim accepted the bag and then patted the shoulder of Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli, then director of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB), who was seated in the driver’s seat.
Ramkarpal: I put it to you, Mr Gana (Gnanaraja), that at the meeting, according to your version, Lim got out of the car and none of his officers met him. Do you agree?
Gnanaraja: Yes, none.
The 37th prosecution witness further told the court that he could not recall the precise location in the vicinity of Publika where he handed over the RM1 million in cash.
Charges against ex-CM
According to the amended first charge, Lim, 64, is accused, in his capacity as the then Penang chief minister, of abusing his position to receive a bribe of RM3.3 million to assist a company owned by Zarul in securing the project valued at RM6,341,383,702.
The offence allegedly took place between January 2011 and August 2017 at the Chief Minister’s Office in Penang.
Under the amended second charge, Lim is accused of soliciting a 10 percent bribe out of the project’s future profits from Zarul for assisting his company in securing the same project.
The solicitation allegedly took place near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, between 12.30am and 2am in March 2011.
Additionally, Lim faces two charges of disposing of a couple of state-owned lots of land in Penang, valued at RM208.8 million, to a developer linked to the undersea tunnel project.
These offences were allegedly committed at the Penang Land and Mines Office, Komtar, on Feb 17, 2015, and March 22, 2017.
The trial before judge Azura Alwi is scheduled to resume on March 3.
- Bernama
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