Former PM Najib and wife Rosmah file to strike out RM676 million lawsuit

Malaysia—Former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor will file an application to strike out the lawsuit filed by Deepak Jaikishin’s, owner of Carpet Raya.

Deepak pressed charges against the couple and two companies in a RM676 million lawsuit for conspiracy, fraud and un­due in­flu­ence interfering in a property deal that al­legedly caused his com­pany to suf­fer huge losses. He is suing for RM600 mil­lion in gen­eral dam­ages, RM50 mil­lion in ex­em­plary dam­ages and RM26 mil­lion in ag­gra­vated dam­ages.

Photo: Screengrab from YouTube

The two companies involved are: Boustead Holdings Sdn Bhd and its subsidiary company, Bakti Development Wira Sdn Bhd.

The couple’s lawyer announced that the filing of the strike-out application will be before January 7 and that their camp had already informed High Court Judge Datuk Azimah Omar regarding this intention.

Lawyer Kenny Chan represents the two companies while Irzan Iswat Mohd Nor is Deepak’s lawyer who said that the Bousted and Bakti Wira had also filed their dismissal application.

The case management is set on January 14 already. Deepak filed the suit against the defendants last October.

As the director and ma­jor­ity shareholder of As­ta­cang­gih Sdn. Bhd, Deepak claimed that he had signed a land deal with the di­rec­tor and ma­jor­ity share­holder of Awan Me­gah (M) Sdn. Bhd, Raja Ropi­aah Raja Ab­dul­lah.

The three parcels of land is a 181.9 hectare space in Mukim Ka­par, Klang and Mukim Bukit Raja, in the Petaling dis­trict. It is said to be the venue for the National Defence Study Centre, which was to be built in 2007.

He said that As­ta­cang­gih payment of RM13 mil­lion as deposit to Awan Me­gah and RM72.5 mil­lion from Kuwait Fi­nance House (M) Bhd as a land bond was submitted to the Malaysian government.

He claimed that Awan Megah had signed an agreement with the Federal Government and Tanah dan Harta Sdn Bhd to build Pusat Pendidikan Pertahanan Negara (Puspahanas) through a privatisation contract dated June 8, 2005.

The construction was alleged to have been completed on two Selangor state-owned lands in Kapar, Klang in Bukit Raja.

According to Deepak, Awan Megah needed to enter into a shareholder agreement in which about 20 per cent or RM4 million would be given to Raja Ropiaah in Astacanggih.

He added that that before the acquisition agreement was signed on May 16, 2007, Raja Ropiaah was Awan Megah director and majority shareholder while he (Deepak) was director and majority shareholder of Astacanggih.

Deepak argued that Raja Ropiaah was a good friend and proxy of Najib and Rosmah.

How­ever, he claimed that Awan Me­gah, now owned by Raja Ropiaah, re­fused to pro­duce the orig­i­nal land ti­tles for trans­fer to As­ta­cang­gih.

As a result of Na­jib and Rosmah’s in­ter­fer­ence and conspiracy, Deepak recounted in his testimony that he was forced to sell 80 per cent (16 mil­lion units) of his shares in As­ta­cang­gih to Boustead Hold­ings through Wira de­vel­op­ment.

His total claim on losses amounts to over RM500 million.