| STATUTORY DECLARATION I, Manjeet Singh Dhillon (NRIC No: 0248545) of c/o Room 308, 3rd Floor, Bangunan Yayasan Selangor, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, of full age and a Malaysian citizen, do hereby declare and say as follows:- 1. I am an Advocate & Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya with an address for practice at Room 308, Bangunan Yayasan Selangor, Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur and the facts deposed to in this Statutory Declaration are within my own knowledge. 2. I am retained as counsel for Dato Nallakaruppan a/l Solaimalai in Kuala Lumpur High Court Criminal Trial No: 45-40-1998 which is scheduled for hearing from 9 November 1998 onwards. 3. I wrote the letter annexed hereto as MSD-1, the contents of which are self-explanatory, and delivered it personally to the Hon. Attorney General Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah on 12 October 1998 at about 9.30 a.m. 4. Pursuant to the letter being delivered and as a result of an invitation from him to do so I met with the Hon'ble A.G. at about 11.00 a.m. on 13 October 1998. This invitation to meet him, alone, was conveyed through his secretary. 5. At the meeting the Hon'ble A.G. never questioned or disputed my allegations against Dato Gani Patail. Instead the conversation covered, among other things, the work that he, the Hon'ble A.G., was doing to improve the set-up and efficiency of his Department. Only at the tailend of our meeting did the Hon'ble A.G. allude to my letter and say that the letter was not very clear as to how my client would plead to an amended charge under the Arms Act. My response to that was that the client would enter a plea of guilty to an amended charge under the Arms Act. He asked for a letter confirming this and said that either he or Azahar would revert to me after that. 6. On 14 October 1998 1 wrote a short letter to the Hon'ble A.G. confirming my statement that the client would plead guilty. A copy of this letter is annexed hereto as MSD-2. 7. I telephoned and spoke to the Azahar indicated by the Hon'ble A.G., This was on 16 October 1998. The 'Azahar' in question is Encik Azahar bin Mohamed, Ketua Bahagian Pendakwaan. Encik Azahar confirmed receipt of my letter dated 14 October 1998 and he knew about my meeting the Hon'ble A.G. on 13 October 1998. He went on, in the same conversation, to state, that there would have to 'be something else [i.e more than just a plea of guilt to an amended charge]' and that he would revert when he had instructions. This 'something else' asked for by Encik Azahar was obviously what Dato Gani had asked for on 2 October 1998 and confirmed to me a common approach to extracting evidence from Nallakaruppan all Solaimalai by using the I.S A. 'death threat' as their bargaining chip. 8. I had conveyed Dato Gani's demands to my client on the afternoon of 13 October 1998. There was little that Nallakaruppan could have done to satisfy Dato Gani or Azahar since he had nothing to give them that would have matched their demands, short of lying. 9. I did not hear from the Hon'ble A.G. or Encik Azahar and so on or about the 21 October 1998 I telephoned and spoke to the Hon'ble A.G.. He said that he had made no decision and asked for a further week. 10. There was no further response and so on 28 October 1998 I sent the Hon'ble A.G. a reminder. I received a reply dated 29 October 1998 signed by Encik Azahar bin Mohamed rejecting the request for an amendment of the charge. This rejection letter is annexed hereto as 'MSD-3'. and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same to be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declarations Act, 1960. Subscribed and solemnly declared by the above-named Manjeet Singh Dhillon (NRIC No: O248545) ) at Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, this 9th day of Nov, 1998. Before me, (Signature of Judge of Sessions Court, Magistrate or Commissioner for Oaths) |