PI Bala was in town, now on Youtube

A private investigator who made shocking allegations of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s links with Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu, appears to have freedom of movement in the country despite being ‘wanted’ by the authorities.

P Balasubramaniam spoke to Malaysiakini in a brief phone conversation last month confirming that he returned from exile early last month for several weeks to attend to family matters.

The former police special branch officer also confirmed that he had been in and out of the country several times over the past year.

Balasubramanaim  said the authorities were aware of his presence in the country but was unafraid, adding that “they should fear me” due to the information he possesses.

He indicated a willingness to speak in a formal interview, but on the scheduled date, he was unreachable. It is believed that he had again gone into exile in India with his entire family.

Last year, Balasubramaniam stunned the nation when, in a statutory declaration dated July 1, 2008, he alleged that Najib was sexually involved with Altantuya.

His statutory declaration also claimed that prosecutors and the police were ordered to remove evidence linking Najib to Altantuya’s murder.

Youtube video

This statutory declaration was read out at a press conference on July 3, but he recanted and retracted it, substituting it with another one the following day under strange circumstances.

He then fled the country with his family on July 5 and was never seen in public again, until yesterday when he appeared in an online video interview on popular video sharing website Youtube [Click here for link].

In the interview, Balasubramaniam alleged that he was offered RM5 million by one ‘Deepak’ to retract his first statutory declaration.

Rolling text on the video suggests that ‘Deepak’ was linked to first lady Rosmah Mansor and that the interviewed was conducted on Oct 27 in the presence of three Malaysian lawyers.

It is unsure who conducted the interview, believed to have taken place somewhere in India, but it was indicated that the clip was merely the first in a series with Balasubramaniam.

The 90-second video was posted by a user under the name c4productionhouse, which was responsible for a posting a series of interviews with fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and a series of videos condemning Rosmah. Mkini