MACC says Deepak postpones interview on Bala’s SD2 again
Md Izwan and Ida Lim, The Malaysian Insider
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) confirmed today that controversial businessman Deepak Jaikishan had again postponed his interview with the anti-graft body.
Last Saturday, the MACC said that Deepak had claimed he was “not in the (right) state of mind” to be questioned over his claims regarding private investigator P. Balasubramaniam’s second sworn statement in 2008 over the 2006 murder of Mongolian Altantuyaa Shaariibuu.
Deepak said he did not appear at the MACC’s office today.
“No, I didn’t come. I spoke to them at 4pm. I’m meeting them at 5pm tomorrow,” Deepak told The Malaysian Insider in a text message today.
When contacted, a MACC official confirmed that Deepak had told them that he would not be coming today.
“Yes, Deepak did call to tell SPRM that he cannot make it today,” the official wrote in a text message to The Malaysian Insider.
Both Deepak and the MACC official did not state why the interview was moved to tomorrow evening.
Last Friday, Deepak told The Malaysian Insider that he expects to reveal everything to the MACC after he had recently admitted that he helped to get Balasubramaniam to repudiate his earlier statutory declaration on the matter, including finding two lawyers to draft the new statement.
But later that day, Deepak had said that MACC officers had asked him to return at a later unspecified date with documents to back up his allegations.
MACC then responded with a statement last Saturday saying that Deepak had asked to have his interview postponed to today.
“Deepak was greeted by one MACC officer (yesterday) and he subsequently told the officer that he was supposed to be at the MACC office because he had made an appointment with a reporter.
“When asked if he was ready to give his statement, Deepak told the officer that he was ‘not in the state of mind’ to have his statement recorded and requested that he does so on January 22, 2013, at 5pm,” the commission’s Deputy Chief Commissioner, Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdull, said in a statement.
The Bar Council is currently investigating the identity of lawyers and possible misconduct in the drafting of Balasubramaniam’s second sworn statement about the murder of Altantuya.
A cloud of mystery has hung over the identity of the lawyer who drew up Balasubramaniam’s second SD, dated a day after his first on July 3, 2008, regarding Altantuya’s 2006 murder, for which two elite police commandos have been convicted and are facing death sentences.
Balasubramaniam’s lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu had previously said M. Arunampalam’s role as the lawyer who had drafted the investigator’s second SD had been dispelled by well-connected businessman Deepak, who is also in the centre of the controversy surrounding Balasubramaniam’s two SDs.
