PI Bala to re-appear to testify?

BREAKING NEWS : The fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, or RPK, has raised the ante again against Datuk Seri Najib Razak by threatening to expose another statutory declaration by missing private investigator P. Balasubramaniam.

Talk has been swirling for several weeks now that the private investigator was going to surface after going missing since July last year.

There has been speculation that Balasubramaniam would restate allegations against the prime minister he first made in a statutory declaration last year linking Najib to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

In a posting on his Malaysia-today.net portal, RPK alleges that Balasubramaniam had been living in India since he went missing and had been paid to keep quiet.

“Little did they know that Bala was just biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike back.

“And now he is striking back and has come out to reveal what really happened since the time he signed his first statutory declaration, followed by the second one the following day, 16 months ago,” RPK wrote.

For the opposition, this development, if true, will provide a chance to put the prime minister under pressure and put a difficult issue for him back on the table.

While RPK provides little concrete evidence for his allegations, such is his following and influence among Malaysians that his attacks against Najib remain damaging.

In his latest attacks, he publishes photographs of cheques allegedly made out to Balasubramaniam.

And he promised to make more revelations within the next month.

Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib’s closest associates, had been charged for abetment and tried for the 2006 murder of Altantuya.

Abdul Razak was eventually acquitted. But two policemen who were once on Najib’s security detail were found guilty of the murder.

Abdul Razak had admitted that Altantuya was his lover.

But the close ties between the major players in the murder and Najib have always dogged the prime minister, with critics like RPK frequently accusing the government of a conspiracy to protect the PM.

Last year, Balasubramaniam caused a stir when he made public a statutory declaration in which he alleged Najib had a sexual relationship with Altantuya.

But he then made another statutory declaration a day later retracting the accusations against Najib.

After that Balasubramaniam disappeared.

The private investigator had been hired by Abdul Razak to help him deal with Altantuya, who was alleged to have been harassing him.

Balasubramaniam was also a witness in the murder trial.

[Source: The MalaysianInsider]

Geronimo's Take : If this is true, then Najib may be screwed this time. I hope he is sleeping easy these days as so many things are beginning to unfold at such rapid pace.