Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Mahadi Abdul Jumaat disclosed the matter today during the corruption trial of former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng.

Gnanaraja is one of the prosecution witnesses in Lim’s trial. Gnanaraja was charged at the Shah Alam sessions court on April 3, 2019 with three counts of cheating Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB) director Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli of RM19 million.

He was alleged to have deceived Zarul into believing that he could help him close the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigation against him, which was linked to the Penang undersea tunnel project.

Checks on MACC’s website found that Gnanaraja was imposed a fine of RM230,000 over a charge under Section 218 (1)(A) of the Companies Act 2016, on Dec 23, 2020.

It was understood that the businessman had pleaded guilty to the alternative charge under the Companies Act.

During today’s proceedings, Mahadi said the IP had been classified as NFA and the prosecution team conducting the case against Lim did not have the report (on the Shah Alam case).

He clarified this when Lim’s lead counsel Gobind Singh Deo said the defence would be filing contempt proceedings against the prosecution for allegedly contravening a court order issued on Sept 29 for MACC’s forensic department investigation officer Wan Firdaus Wan Yusof to produce a copy of the contents of a phone belonging to Zarul.

The court order is also for the prosecution to furnish details of the report, prepared for the Shah Alam court case, which contained a WhatsApp conversation between Zarul and Gnanaraja.

Gobind’s contempt claim arose following his cross-examination of Wan Firdaus today, where the latter testified that he was unable to obtain the details sought by the defence team.