KUALA LUMPUR – Attempts by Lim Guan Eng’s defence team to adduce evidence disproving testimonies by earlier witnesses claiming that the Bagan MP had received kickbacks worth RM2 million for the Penang undersea tunnel project remains in limbo.
Lead defence counsel Gobind Singh Deo said his application to secure proceeding notes from the Shah Alam sessions court on a previous RM19 million cheating case, involving businessman G. Gnanaraja and Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, are still being processed by the court.
Noting that the application to obtain the court transcripts regarding WhatsApp conversations between Gnanaraja and Zarul had been filed on February 9, Gobind requested that today’s hearing on the defence team’s bid to submit additional evidence at the sessions court here be postponed.
“The testimony provided by witness (CZCSB former senior vice-president of finance and corporate services) Azli Adam in Shah Alam is very important for our case here because it will show that the RM2 million (discussed between Gnanaraja and Zarul) has nothing to do with (Lim).
“Besides showing that a witness in this case has lied, the WhatsApp messages will also show that the prosecution has suppressed evidence by failing to alert the court here (on the details) of the case in Shah Alam.
“This is very dangerous, and there should be a ruling about how they (prosecution’s) actions have affected the defence’s case,” Gobind said during his submission.
In response, the prosecution, led by Wan Shaharudin Wan Ladin, said they have no qualms with today’s hearing being postponed. Judge Azura Alwi then set back the hearing to March 1.
The case in Shah Alam saw Gnanaraja initially being charged with cheating Zarul before the former pleaded guilty to alternative charges under the Companies Act 2016 and was imposed a fine of RM230,000 over a charge under Section 218(1)(A) of the act.
Azli, who is a prosecution witness in both cases, had testified here last year that he was notified that company money had been paid to Lim as bribes, although he did not personally witness the transactions.
Gobind, however, is contending that Azli, along with CZCSB former senior executive director Ibrahim Sahari, lied to the court then as they informed the Shah Alam court that Zarul told them the money was for someone else instead of Lim.
Previously, the defence counsel had implicated a former prime minister as the actual recipient of bribes related to the project, with Gobind asserting that the prime minister in 2017 had accepted monies from Gnanaraja and Zarul.
Lim is facing an amended charge of using his position as Penang chief minister to receive RM3.3 million in bribes to help Consortium Zenith BUCG, owned by Zarul, to obtain the undersea tunnel project, valued at RM6,341,383,702, between January 2011 and August 2017.
On the second amended charge, allegedly committed in March 2011, Lim is accused of soliciting bribes amounting to 10% of the profits to be earned by the company from Zarul, as gratification for helping the company secure the project.
Lim also faces two charges of causing two plots of land, worth RM208.8 million, belonging to the Penang government, to be disposed of to two companies linked to the state’s undersea tunnel project.
He was charged with committing the act at the Penang Land and Mines Office, 21st floor, Komtar, on February 17, 2015 and March 22, 2017. – The Vibes, February 15, 2023
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