KUALA LUMPUR: Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, his wife Rosmah Mansor (pix) and six others are objecting to the bid of businessman Deepak Jaikishan to make them third parties to the lawsuit by late private investigator P. Balasubramaniam (PI Bala)’s family.
Lawyer Vinod Kamalanathan, representing Deepak, said Najib and the seven others argued that the issues in Bala’s widow, A. Santamil Selvi’s suit had already been submitted and decided on by the courts.
“They are trying to say that they were parties to the family’s suit before, but that the claim against them was struck out by the Court of Appeal in July last year, “ he said today.
“We are seeking for the court to issue third party notices to them as indemnity.”
High Court judge Azimah Omar fixed March 29 to hear Deepak’s bid to obtain leave to issue third party notices to Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s siblings Nazim and Johari, as well as lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, and commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.
PI Bala, who died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) in the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Santamil and her children sued Najib, Deepak and the others in 2017 for causing them intentional harm as a result of their 2008 exile to India.
In her suit, she claimed that Najib and the others had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer both financial and non-financial losses.
She also seeks damages for losses suffered during their five-year exile.
Santamil has also filed for leave to appeal to the Federal Court against the appeal court’s decision to drop the claims against Najib and the others with the appeal hearing on Feb 26.
