Pakatan pushes for probe into PI Bala allegations

Pakatan wants authorities to take Bala’s allegations seriously. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid and Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers want an investigation into claims made by missing private investigator P Bakasubramaniam linking Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.
Bala is now saying he rescinded a statutory declaration (SD) linking Najib to the murdered Mongolian model after his family was threatened within a day of his statement in July 2008.
Bala also related in an interview carried by the Malaysia-Today.net news portal today that he left the country for Singapore the same day of his second SD and later for Chennai via Bangkok.
He stressed that he signed the second SD without even reading it.
The former policeman also claimed he was given the equivalent of RM20,000 in Hong Kong dollars for expenses as he and his family were due to go to the Chinese city. However, they switched destinations to Chennai.
In the second part of an interview filed under the column of fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, Bala said the entire process of repudiating the first SD was coordinated by a businessman named Deepak, whom Raja Petra claims is a close associate of Najib’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, one of the main opposition figures who has used the murder to attack his arch-rival Najib, called for the authorities to investigate Bala’s claim.
“It warrants investigation. No doubt about that,” he told a press conference in Parliament here.
PAS vice-president and Pokok Sena MP, Datuk Mahfuz Omar said today the police and graft-busters MACC should initiate a probe immediately and that the failure to do so would “shame the country”.
“I would say that the police and the MACC should view the statement by Bala as something very serious. It shows now that he is standing by his first SD and the second one made to invalidate the first was made under threat.
“This indicates that Najib has failed to clear his name and answer all the allegations made against him. This would shame the country,” he told The Malaysian Insider at Parliament lobby here.
Klang DAP lawmaker Charles Santiago pointed out that the revelation made by Bala will draw attention to Rosmah’s alleged involvement in the case.
Bala was quoted as saying that Deepak — the person who forced him to retract his first SD — was close to Najib’s wife.
“What is this connection? I think this seems to be the more interesting issue, somehow it takes away the role of Najib in this whole process,” said Charles.
“I think this is something which needs to be investigated by the MACC and I think what PI Bala has said in the statutory declaration is an indictment of Najib,” added the Klang MP.
There has been no official reaction from Najib and family over Bala’s claims but some pro-Umno bloggers have poured scorn over the latest allegations as an opposition smear campaign to unseat the prime minister.