Businessman told to serve notice on Najib, 7 others
KUALA LUMPUR: Businessman Deepak Jaikishan, who was sued by the family of private investigator P. Balasubramaniam, or PI Bala, has been instructed to serve a notice to reinstate the names of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and seven others in the suit.
Deepak’s lawyer, Vinod Kamalanathan, said his client had taken up third-party proceedings against Najib and the seven others who were defendants in the suit filed by Balasubramaniam’s widow, A. Santamil Selvi, which was struck out in July.
Vinod said the court had asked his client to serve the notice before it could grant leave for the third-party proceedings.
“The court finds that there is a slightly peculiar situation because they were parties before and now, they are no longer parties.
“Therefore, the court wants to hear it before granting leave.
“We are bringing them as third parties, so we are serving the documents for them to reply,” he said after the matter came up before judge Datuk Azimah Omar in chambers.
He said the court had fixed Nov 23 for Deepak to update the status on the third-party notice.
Apart from Najib, the other seven were Najib’s wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, his brothers, Datuk Mohd Nazim and Datuk Ahmad Johari, lawyers Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, Sunil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, and commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.
Except for Deepak, who was also named as a defendant, Santamil Selvi’s suit against the other eight was struck out on July 25, at the Court of Appeal.
The suit against Deepak is pending.
Santamil had also filed for leave to appeal to the Federal Court against the Court of Appeal’s decision striking out her suit against Najib and the others.
Her appeal will be heard on Feb 26.
Santamil and her three children — B. Kishen, B. Menaga and B. Reeshi — filed the suit on July 23 last year to claim for losses incurred during their stay out of the country as a result of their exile in India from July 4, 2008, to March 15, 2013, when Balasubramainam, 53, died of a heart attack.
In their statement of claim, Santamil said her husband was forced to withdraw his statutory declaration made on July 1, 2008, relating to certain facts in the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.
She also claimed that she and her family were wrongfully thrown out of the country after Balasubramaniam was appointed by former political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda as a private investigator in the murder case.