THE Kuala Lumpur High Court today ordered an Affin Bank processing officer to reproduce further evidence to show where a bank transfer of RM8 million, allegedly from SRC International Sdn Bhd, went to.

Rosaiah Rosli, a witness at former prime Najib Razak’s SRC International trial, was asked to reproduce an image of the cheque that was issued by Ihsan Perdana in December 2014.

Ihsan Perdana is SRC International’s corporate responsibility arm.

Justice Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali allowed a request by the defence for the image as it was part of RM40 million transfer on December 24, 2014, from SRC International’s subsidiary Gandingan Mentari to Ihsan Perdana.   

Defence lawyer Harvinderjit Singh told the court as there were cheques of RM27 million and RM5 million issued to Najib’s AmBank account in the same month from Ihsan Perdana, the defence would like to know who the recipients were of the RM8 million transfer.

Earlier, during cross-examination by Najib’s lawyer Harvinderjit Singh, Rosaiah confirmed there were RM103 million in transfers from SRC International between December 2014 and April 2015.

This includes the RM42 million in transfers to Najib himself, for which the former prime minister is facing seven criminal charges, including money laundering. 

Harvinderjit requested the court to compel Rosaiah to bring further documents relating to the remaining RM61 million as evidence, which he said was important to the defence’s case.

The bulk of the RM61 million was transferred out by Ihsan Perdana by way of cheques.

Harvinderjit said it was desirable and necessary to discover where the more than RM60 million went to as it did not go into Najib’s account. 

Nazlan: But it has nothing to do with the charges.

Harvinderjit: A bigger portion has ended up elsewhere and going to unknown recipients. It shows that is part of the same transactions.

At this point, deputy public prosecutor V. Sithambaram stood up and objected, urging the judge not to allow the court to go on “a wild goose chase”.

Sithambaram: This case is based on seven charges. Specific charges. This court is not to conduct an inquiry on how the other money is spent or where it has gone.

Harvinderjit then put forth the defence’s case, that Najib was “manipulated by certain people who have gained tremendously”.

Harvinderjit: The witness is here. Rosaiah has confirmed she can produced the documents. We are here to discover the truth, not just prove the prosecution’s case. If we take it holistically, we say that there is a system in place where money is extracted from SRC to Gandingan to Ihsan and to (elsewhere).  

Nazlan later ruled against the defence’s request, saying he would only allow the witness to bring further documents relating to the criminal charges faced by Najib.

“I am only allowing questioning limited to the three transactions,” said Nazlan.

Also called to the witness stand today was AmBank branch manager Uma Devi Ragavan who testified that SRC International had two current accounts and five signatories for them.

The five were Ismee Ismail, Che Abdullah @ Rashidi Che Omar, Shahrol Azral Ibrahim Halmi, Nik Faisal Ariff Kamil and Suboh Md Yasin. 

Under the company resolution, the signatories were divided into two groups – with the first three under one group – and the other two in another group, she read from a written statement.

She also testified that there were three transactions of RM500 million each into one of SRC International’s accounts in 2011.

After that, the court adjourned for lunch. – April 24, 2019