PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli said he would meet businessperson Deepak Jaikishan, following the latter’s press conference yesterday lamenting the lack of political support.

NONERafizi said while he is confident that Deepak (right) has a lot of “evidence detrimental to (Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak, he previously did not want PKR to be seen to be close to him.

“My fear before was that if PKR is seen to be too close with him and too cozy with him before the fact is established (that Deepak is working on his own), the whole opportunity to uncover the truth would be overtaken by Umno’s spin and allegations that we are behind this,” he said at a press conference, today.

Rafizi said the message that Deepak is acting on his own accord was achieved last night when Deepak had a press conference calling for political support, and he believed that the public could see that PKR had never had any discussions with him.
He said he would contact Deepak after the press conference to apologise, arrange for a meeting, and see what he can offer.

“I will hear for myself what evidence does he have, what plans does he have, and his views. We will see how we will go from there.

“My rule is very simple and we have maintained that rule all along: We are not really interested in other things except when it is of public interest,” he said.

However, he insisted that the documents he disclosed yesterday, purportedly showing Deepak’s carpet trading companies purchasing jewellery for the prime minister’s wife Rosmah Mansor are authentic and came from Deepak.
He said Deepak had indeed approached PKR leaders with documents that he claimed would incriminate Najib and his wife Rosmah several months ago, with hopes that the party would take up the issue.

These documents were eventually passed to Rafizi, because it is his role as director of strategy to research it, verify its authenticity, and decide what to do with it.

“At that point with those documents alone, I don’t see any element of public interest in the matter.

“It could be that Deepak is really rich, and it could be that he bought everything as presents to Rosmah. After all, Rosmah had made it public that she receives gifts from different governments and other people. That is why we didn’t intervene when he later started his exposés.

‘A whole new dimension’

“However, last week when Boustead Holdings Bhd announced that it would pay RM160 million for Deepak’s company and Awam Megah, that adds a new dimension to the whole thing.

“Suddenly you see pension money from Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera - which involves the armed forces’ interests - now being used to buy Deepak’s shares and pay Awam Megah” he said, which raised suspicion of kickbacks and prompted him to investigate further.

Since Deepak had denied that the documents were his but admitted that he owned the carpet trading companies named, Rafizi said Deepak should report it the police if he believed there was forgery.

However, he noted that it would be difficult for Deepak to do so because the documents originate from him.

Regardless, Rafizi said PKR leaders throughout the nation would lodge reports with police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the documents, and added that the person who obtained the document from Deepak is willing to come forward to give statements.

“At this stage when we exchange words in press conferences, of course it is my words against his words.

“In the interest of the public, I think we should push it further so that it is being investigated... only the authorities after an investigation can ascertain whether these documents did come from him,” he said.