Deepak withdraws appeal on authenticity of medical certs

Businessman will now give evidence that incriminates Najib, Rosmah and 6 others for causing intentional harm to family of late PI Bala.

Businessman Deepak Jaikishan was scheduled to be cross-examined over two conflicting defences he filed but was absent at least two times on medical grounds. (Youtube screengrab)

PUTRAJAYA: Businessman Deepak Jaikishan, who is facing a suit by the family of the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam (better known as PI Bala), has abandoned his appeal against a High Court ruling which had questioned the authenticity of his medical certificates.

His lawyer, Vinod Kamalanathan, said he filed in the Court of Appeal yesterday a notice of discontinuance of the appeal.

“However, the court will formally hear the matter (appeal withdrawal) on July 11,” he said after a case management before deputy registrar Hanie Dzatul Akhmar Zulkelfi today.

On March 27, Deepak was scheduled to be cross-examined over two conflicting defences but he was absent at least two times on medical grounds.

During this time, Deepak had also replaced his former lawyer, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, and appointed Vinod.

On June 4, High Court judge Hue Siew Kheng allowed the first defence to be used in the trial after an agreement by lawyers representing Deepak and PI Bala’s wife, A Santamil Selvi.

Deepak, in his first defence filed on Oct 25 last year, had said Najib and wife Rosmah had masterminded PI Bala’s family exile to India in 2008.

Shafee, however, filed a second defence in November that absolved the couple of any wrongdoing.

Following today’s development, Deepak will rely on his first defence that incriminates Najib, Rosmah and six others who were said to have caused severe hardship to the family while they were overseas.

Meanwhile, Santamil’s lawyer Americk Sidhu also said the Court of Appeal would hear on July 25 the appeal by Najib, Rosmah and six others against the High Court’s decision to deny their bid to strike out Santamil’s lawsuit.

Hue had said early this year that there were serious issues to be determined and a trial must be held.

The six others named in the lawsuit included Najib’s brothers, Mohd Nazim and Johari, lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, and commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.

Santamil alleged the family suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile to India.

Santamil claimed they had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.

Santamil and her two children, Kishen and Menaga, are seeking damages for losses suffered from July 2008 as a result of their five-year displacement.

PI Bala was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) in the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He was forced to leave Malaysia for India in a hurry after signing the second SD on July 4, 2008, a day after the first was released.

Balasubramaniam, in the second SD, said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 1, as it had been made under duress.

Balasubramaniam, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.

He was hired by political analyst and Najib’s associate Abdul Razak Baginda to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance. -FMT