TV PAKATAN RAKYAT

Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda allegedly regretted refusing paying slain Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu a US$500,000 (RM1.5 million) commission purportedly owed her for translation services in a government submarine deal, P. Balasubramaniam was reported telling a packed town hall here last night. The former private investigator, hired by Abdul Razak to keep an eye on his one-time mistress, related the analyst saying so on November 7, 2006 while in a lift where the latter’s lawyer was also present, just half an hour before his arrest for abetting in the Mongolian’s gruesome murder. “Boss, look here. What was my advice to you? Police report. You should have done the police report,”

Balasubramaniam (picture) was quoted as saying last night by news portal Malaysiakini, in reply to Abdul Razak’s remark. The ex-investigator, who returned home last Sunday after nearly five years in exile, was reported as giving a detailed recollection of the highly controversial events surrounding his two conflicting sworn statements over Altantuya’s 2006 murder and subsequent marathon trial that ended in Abdul Razak’s acquittal and two elite policemen being sentenced to the gallows. Rumours of Abdul Razak’s imminent arrest had been circulating widely then, and according to Balasubramaniam, the analyst was busy with legal preparations should he be charged. The ex-detective, popularly known as PI Bala who became famous following his explosive revelations on the 2006 murder, had decided to come out of hiding and return to participate in opposition Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) campaign ahead of Election 2013, his lawyer Americk Sidhu Singh had told The Malaysian Insider last week.

Balasubramanim had first entered the public spotlight in 2008 for claims he made against top federal government personalities in his first statutory declaration (SD) on Altantuya’s brutal murder. But when Balasubramaniam retracted the SD the following day and signed a new one where the names of these personalities were omitted, he found himself in an even deeper tangle, forcing him to flee the country. A year later, in 2009, he reappeared in the limelight when he claimed that the second SD had been signed under duress and without his knowledge of its contents. Balasubramaniam’s name again earned media attention recently following the emergence of Deepak Jaikishan, the controversial carpet dealer with close links to several prominent government and corporate personalities and who was purportedly involved in the second SD. ~themalaysianinsider.com~