KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Missing private investigator P. Balasubramaniam has claimed police interviewed him about the contradicting statutory declarations (SD) in Bangkok and one officer had praised his bravery for sticking to his first statement.
In the third part of an interview carried by the Malaysia-Today news portal, Bala related the events that occurred after he landed in Bangkok on July 4, 2008 where he stayed at the Shangri-La and later at the Hilton Hotel.
The former policeman said he called his friend, suspended police officer ASP Suresh as he was asked to so by Deepak, a businessman whom Malaysia-Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin has linked to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
He claimed he had help from one of Deepak’s brothers, Rajesh, to get Indian visas.
On July 7, Bala said he received a call from a Malaysian Special Branch officer who called form the lobby of his hotel and wanted to meet up. They met up and he recognised him as a former colleague who was now the liaison officer from the Malaysian Embassy in Bangkok.
“He asked me whether I would give permission for the Malaysian Police to record a statement from me and if I was agreeable, he would inform KL about this. I asked him to wait while I called ASP Suresh to inform him about this development,” Bala said in the interview.
He related that he called ASP Suresh who instructed him on what to say to the police interviewers but asked him to avoid mentioning the involvement of Deepak, his brother Dinesh and the suspended police officer.
”In short, he basically told me to tell the police that after I had made public my 1st Statutory declaration, I felt remorse and wanted to retract it so I decided to call a lawyer called Arunampalam, who I was supposed to have met through my PI work, and arranged to meet him at the Lotus restaurant next to the Nikko Hotel on Jalan Binjai.
“When I met up with him at this restaurant he advised me to retract the 1st statutory declaration and that he would draft a second one for me to that effect. I was supposed to say that I went to his office with him where he prepared the 2nd statutory declaration which I signed and that I went to the Prince Hotel the next day with him to release this statutory declaration to the press.
“This is what I was told to say to the police when they recorded my statement, according to ASP Suresh,” Bala said.
He then informed the Special Branch officer he was agreeable to having his statement recorded the next day and later went for a meal with the officer the same evening
Bala explained the officer came the next morning to his hotel and drove him to the Malaysian Embassy where three police officers later arrived, apparently flying in from Kuala Lumpur the previous evening after getting confirmation that he was prepared to give a statement.
Asked if he recognised the police officers, the private detective said, “Yes, there was ASP Muniandy from the Commercial Crimes division of Bukit Aman, another Indian officer and a Malay officer, whose names escape me at the moment.”
He noted that the officers were pleasant to him when they recorded his statement.
ACP Muniandy asked me which of the two statutory declarations was true and I said the 1st one. He then shook my hand and told me I was a very brave man,” Bala said, adding he was questioned for some six hours..
“They did not seem to be interested in my 2nd statutory declaration and concentrated their questions in relation to my 1st statutory declaration. They wanted to know who was involved in it and how I was led into making it.
“I explained everything to them from the time I met my lawyer Americk Sidhu in a pub one night with ASP Suresh, M Puravalen and Sivarasah Rasiah in April or May 2008 up to the time of my first press release,” he added, explaining that ACP Muniandy had asked all the questions while another colleague recorded the statement.
He also said he also repeated what ASP Suresh had told him to say about the circumstances which prompted him to affirm the 2nd statutory declaration which the police officers recorded.
The news portal said there are more parts of the interview that will be published soon.
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