The widow of the late private investigator P Balasubramaniam has failed in her bid to reinstate a second legal suit against former prime minister Najib Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor, and six others.
The Federal Court today dismissed A Santamil Selvi’s application for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s ruling which had struck out her lawsuit.
A three-member Federal Court bench chaired by Rohana Yusuf made the ruling after hearing submissions via video conferencing due to the conditional movement control order.
The other two judges were Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal and Rhodzariah Bujang.
Najib and Rosmah’s lawyer, Mohd Hafarizam Harun, when contacted, said the leave to appeal to the Federal Court was dismissed with no order as to costs.
On July 25, 2018, a three-man bench of the Court of Appeal, comprising justices Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, Suraya Othman, and Stephen Chung Hian Guan, allowed the appeals brought by Najib, Rosmah, and six others to strike out the second lawsuit filed against them by Santamil.
The six others were Najib's brothers Mohd Nazim and Ahmad Johari, lawyers Cecil Abraham, Sunil Abraham, and Arulampalam Mariampillai, as well as commissioner of oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.
Justice Tengku Maimun, who chaired the bench, held that Santamil had filed the suit after the six-year limitation period.
"We are of the view that the filing of the second suit based on the same facts and parties after the first suit had been struck out, is an abuse of the court process," she said.
She said the court could not accept Santamil's contention that she could not file the suit earlier because she and her family were out of the country.
On July 23, 2017, Santamil and her three children - B Kishen, B Menaga, and B Reeshi - filed the second lawsuit on behalf of her late husband against the eight, whom she had also named as defendants in her previous suit, alleging that they suffered intentional harm as a result of their exile in India.
Santamil and her children, who sought damages with interest, claimed that the defendants had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.
On Jan 30, 2018, the Kuala Lumpur High Court rejected the applications by the eight defendants to strike out the second lawsuit filed by Santamil.
In June 2014, Santamil had filed a conspiracy suit against Najib, Rosmah, Mohd Nazim, Johari, Sunil, Cecil, Arulampalam, Zainal Abidin, and businessperson Deepak Jaikishan.
Except for Deepak, Santamil's suit against the other eight of them were struck out by the High Court in 2014 and affirmed by the Court of Appeal and Federal Court in 2015.
Balasubramaniam, also known as PI Bala, was a key witness in the trial of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu. He died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
- Bernama
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