Court to rule on May 4 which Deepak defence to accept

The High Court will rule on May 4 which defence of Deepak Jaikishian to accept and whether to disqualify senior counsel Mohd Shafee Abdullah from representing the controversial carpet trader.

Justice Hue Siew Kheng had ruled that Deepak had abused the court process in not coming to court to be cross-examined on his two conflicting defences on three different occasions.

Justice Hue said if Deepak could fly to New Delhi, India to allegedly seek treatment then he could well testify in court.

A Santamil Selvi, the widow of private investigator P Balasubramaniam (below, right) had wanted Deepak to be cross-examined on the above two application which Justice Hue allowedon Feb 6.

Santamil and her three children had sought to strike out Deepak's second defence which was filed by Shafee.

It was reported that Deepak had dismissed Shafee as his lawyer and sent his first defence statement directly to Santamil's solicitors Americk Sidhu (below, left) on Oct 25 last year without giving a copy to the court.

However, he then rehired Shafee as his lawyer and filed a second defence statement dated Nov 6.

The widow is also seeking to remove Shafee from representing Deepak as Americk and Sarawak Report editor Claire Rewcastle Brown had separately affirmed an affidavit that Deepak gave Americk RM250,000 to be paid to Santamil.

They also claimed the carpet businessperson was forced to appoint Shafee under duress. As a result of this, Justice Hue had on Feb 6 allowed Santamil's application to cross-examine Deepak.

Deepak had then told reporters then that he hoped to tell what transpired and it would “set him free”. However, he has thus far failed to turn up on the court-appointed dates citing ill health.

Worldwide attention

Today, Santamil Selvi's lawyer and former Federal Court judge Gopal Sri Ram urged the court to accept Deepak's first defence dated Oct 25, last year.

He said there was no denial of the defence filed on Oct 25 and no response to the affidavits filed by Americk and Sarawak Report editor Claire Rewcastle Brown in support of Santamil's application.

"The allegation (that Deepak had been forced to appoint Shafee)is not denied in court and the court can infer the allegation is true and unrebutted," he said.

Shafee, meanwhile, told the court that it should only accept the Nov 6 dated defence as it was properly filed in court after his firm was reappointed on Oct 30 last year.

He also questioned Americk and Claire's affidavit in support saying it was based on hearsay and should not be accepted.

Santamil and her children filed the suit last Aug 1 claiming for injury and loss of income following the family's exile to India from 2008 to 2013.

This is after Balasubramaniam had made a statutory declaration in July 2008, claiming that then deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak had known slain Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

He retracted this statutory declaration the next day and issued a second one contradicting the contents of the first.

Altantuya was murdered in October 2006 and the case has garnered worldwide attention. -Mkini