Deepak was not in the High Court today to be questioned under oath as he had obtained a medical certificate for three days up to tomorrow from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre in Cheras.
Deepak’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah told Justice Hue Siew Kheng that Deepak came to his office yesterday evening and vomited in the conference room.
“He continued to vomit in the toilet beside the reception,” Shafee said.
The lawyer said he advised Deepak to see a doctor and inform him whether he could come to court today.
Shafee said Deepak informed him this morning that he had obtained a medical certificate, which was also sent to the solicitors of A Santamil Selvi, Balasubramaniam’s widow.
However, lawyer Gopal Sri Ram, appearing for the widow, told Hue the certificate did not state that Deepak was unfit to attend today’s proceedings.
Hue then fixed the cross-examination to be conducted on March 27 and also ordered Deepak to produce a medical report on his condition.
On Feb 6, Hue allowed Santamil Selvi to question Deepak on the conflicting defences and whether Shafee & Co had the authority to represent him.
Santamil Selvi and her children filed the action for causing intentional harm last August as a result of the family being allegedly forced to leave Malaysia in 2008.
She had filed a suit for conspiracy in June 2014 which was struck out in December that year on the grounds that she had not obtained a letter of administration to represent the estate of Balasubramaniam, who was better known as PI Bala.
Deepak filed his first defence on Oct 25 and it was served on lawyer Americk Sidhu, who first represented the widow and the children.
Subsequently, Shafee, who was listed to appear for Deepak, filed the second defence.
Deepak’s first defence stated that Prime Minister Najib Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor, had orchestrated the plaintiff’s exile to India in 2008.
However, the latest defence absolved the couple of any wrongdoing.
Americk had said the defence’s two statements were “diametrically opposed” in material particulars.
Santamil Selvi had also filed an application to disqualify Shafee from representing Deepak.
Santamil Selvi and her children have named Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s brothers Mohd Nazim and Johari, lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat and Deepak as parties to her action.
Santamil Selvi filed the action contending the defendants had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer financial and non-financial losses.
Santamil Selvi, together with her two children, Kishen and Menaga, are seeking damages, with interest, for losses suffered from July 2008 as a result of their five-year displacement.
PI Bala was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations (SD) in the high-profile 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
In the present suit, the family said the defendants had caused PI Bala’s second SD to be drafted without his instruction and, further, caused him to sign it under threat and inducement.
He was forced to leave Malaysia for India in a hurry after signing the second SD on July 4, 2008, a day after the first was released, it claimed.
The second SD is supposed to have cleared Najib of any involvement in the case.
Balasubramaniam, in the second SD, said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 1, as it had been made under duress.
Balasubramaniam, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
He was hired by political analyst and Najib associate Abdul Razak Baginda, to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance.