Defence in Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel graft trial says yet to receive official transcript of businessman Gnanaraja's case

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 15): The defence in Lim Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel graft case informed the Sessions Court here on Wednesday (Feb 15) that it had yet to receive the official transcript of businessman Datuk Seri G Gnanaraja's court case in Shah Alam, which is relevant to the former Penang chief minister’s case.

Lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo said they had written to the Shah Alam Sessions Court on Jan 11, where they initially agreed to provide the court recording but not the transcript.

He said that due to the urgent manner of Lim's case, the defence had transcribed the notes of proceedings of the case in Shah Alam.

However, he added that the defence's transcript was disputed by the prosecution.

This resulted in the defence wanting Sessions Court Judge Azura Alwi to make a ruling on whether the court here wanted to carry on in hearing the defence's request for a forensic report over the WhatsApp exchanges between Gnanaraja and Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli and the complaint made in the Shah Alam court on Wednesday, or wait until the official transcript is made available.

This (the forensic report and complaint), Gobind added, is important as the defence in Lim’s case would like to show that the RM2 million which the former chief minister is alleged to have been paid is also the same amount referred to in Gnanaraja's case.

'Suppression of evidence'

There, Gobind said, the payment voucher, cheque and payment were issued to one Azli Adam, who was a witness in the Shah Alam matter and also the 28th witness here, where he repeatedly alleged there was a suppression of evidence.

The RM2 million cheque issued by CZCSB referred to as "chocolates" was referred to being paid to "big boss", which the defence in Lim’s case alleged was for former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. The prosecution contended it was for Lim.

Gnanaraja was initially charged in the Shah Alam Sessions Court in 2019 with deceiving a director of CZCSB for RM19 million in relation to the Penang undersea tunnel project. He was alleged to have deceived the director sometime between July and August 2017.

In October last year, it was revealed that Gnanaraja’s case in Shah Alam had been classified as no further action, despite 11 witnesses having already testified.

According to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s website, Gnanaraja was instead found guilty by the Sessions Court under Section 218 of the Companies Act 2016 and fined RM230,000 for using a company’s property with a value of RM11.42 million to obtain direct profit for himself without seeking approval in a company’s shareholder meeting.

Gobind has been alleging since last month that the witnesses in Gnanaraja’s Shah Alam case and Lim’s case had been giving conflicting evidence in order to implicate the former Penang chief minister, and repeated the prosecution’s purported suppression of evidence.

The lawyer further said that he was prepared to submit the defence's application for it to get the forensic report and complaint on Wednesday but without the official transcript.

Deputy public prosecutor Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin along with DPP Ahmad Akram Gharib replied that they had no objection should the defence need more time to get the official transcript from Shah Alam, and were even prepared to deal with the submissions on getting the forensic report and complaint against Gnanaraja’s case.

Azura decided to wait for the official transcript and fixed March 1 and March 17 for submissions on the issue.

Lim, who is the Member of Parliament for Bagan, is accused of using his position as the then Penang chief minister to solicit a 10% cut in the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project’s profit from Zarul, in return for aiding the businessman’s company to secure the project. He is accused of accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks from Zarul.

The DAP chairman also faces two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property in releasing two plots of state-owned land cumulatively worth RM208.75 million to Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd and Zenith Urban Development Sdn Bhd — two property companies linked to the controversial undersea tunnel project.

Source: The Edge CEO Morning Brief