Gopal Sri Ram told the AG that Mahathir wanted Najib arrested
A prelude to a chapter in my memoirs!
Mohamed Apandi Bin Ali
One evening in January 2018, Dato Sri Gopal Sri Ram came to my house after a couple of calls wanting to speak to me personally and privately.
Since he was a former brother judge, I obliged.
He had indicated that he wanted to persuade me further to unfreeze the accounts of a certain firm as the lawyers who had engaged him needed to be paid and it was from that said account that they were to be paid from.
He had earlier sent in a representation to the AGC as I was the AG at that time but after consultation with the officers in the criminal division, I wrote to him with a negative response.
He arrived at my house with a young Chinese lawyer, and upon sitting down, he launched into his long argument of why I shouldn’t have responded negatively but I countered him and explained that everything I had put in the reply was carefully thought out and argued amongst us in chambers.
Then suddenly, he said, that that was only an excuse to see me and that he had a bigger agenda at hand.
“Tun M sent me to see you.”
“He wants you to arrest Najib at his office, you go tomorrow at 2pm, we have arranged for the police in Putrajaya to do what is necessary on your instructions. We have also arranged for a magistrate to issue the remand order when he is brought before him or her.”
“Brother, you will be a hero in the eyes of the people and you will be the first AG to arrest a sitting Prime Minister.”
“Don’t worry, we have laid the ground plans, all I need now is for you to agree.”
Then I asked him, “On what grounds is he supposed to be arrested for?”
He said: “Brother, people out there are frustrated and unhappy, the fact that you arrest him, never mind the reason, will make people happy.”
Gopal Sri Ram was persuasive and he had wanted a response immediately. I said to let me sleep on it.
He then left with the young Chinese lawyer he brought with him.
At that time, my family and I were also under attack in social media, not only from the opposition but also from within the then government of the day cyber troopers.
There is no reason for me to save anyone when I was “everyone’s enemy.”
Gopal Sri Ram can deny this but I would like to caution that at that material time I was the AG and my house was fitted with CCTV, (one specifically for the hall) and not to mention my bodyguards and the police personnel who was manning the guardhouse in front of my house – CCTV will not lie and I, too, have witnesses.
