A Santamil Selvi, the widow of Balasubramaniam, better known as PI Bala, and their children sued Najib, Deepak and the others in 2017 for causing them intentional harm as a result of their 2008 exile to India.
Lawyer Vinod Kamalanathan, representing Deepak, said Najib and the seven others argued that the issues in Santamil’s suit had already been submitted and decided on by the courts.
“They are trying to say that they were parties to the family’s suit before, but that the claim against them was struck out by the Court of Appeal in July last year,” he said.
“We are seeking for the court to issue third party notices to them as indemnity.”
Vinod said High Court judge Azimah Omar had fixed March 29 to hear Deepak’s bid to obtain leave to issue third party notices to Najib, Rosmah, Najib’s brothers Nazim and Johari, as well as lawyers Sunil Abraham, Cecil Abraham and Arulampalam Mariampillai, and commissioner for oaths Zainal Abidin Muhayat.
“This is an interesting point of law which we will argue,” he added.
In her suit, Santamil claimed Najib and the others had deprived her family of a normal life and caused them to suffer both financial and non-financial losses.
They are seeking damages for the losses suffered during their five-year displacement.
Although Najib and the others succeeded in striking out Santamil’s suit, Deepak did not proceed with his appeal for the same.
PI Bala was embroiled in controversy over two conflicting statutory declarations (SDs) he had made on the high-profile murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibuu in 2006.
He was forced to leave Malaysia for India in a hurry after signing his second SD on July 4, 2008, a day after the first SD was released.
In his second SD, he said he wished to retract the entire contents of his first SD dated July 1, which he claimed was made under duress.
PI Bala, a key witness in the Altantuya trial, died of a heart attack on March 15, 2013, weeks after returning from India.
He had been hired by political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, a close associate of Najib’s, to monitor Altantuya before her disappearance.
Santamil has also filed for leave to appeal to the Federal Court against the appeal court’s decision to drop the claims against Najib and the others.
Her appeal will be heard on Feb 26.