KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): Datuk Seri G Gnanaraja, the key witness in the Penang undersea tunnel trial, has maintained that the RM19 million which he obtained from Consortium Zenith BUCG Sdn Bhd (CZBUCG) and its director Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli was a “friendly loan”, despite him being charged for cheating Zarul Ahmad in 2019.
Gnanaraja, who is the 37th prosecution witness in former Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng’s undersea tunnel graft trial, maintained this stance when asked repeatedly by Lim’s counsel Ramkarpal Singh at the Sessions Court on Friday.
The defence in Lim’s trial was testing Gnanaraja’s credibility as a witness when Ramkarpal asserted to the businessman that as a result of the allegations of cheating by Zarul Ahmad, Gnanaraja was considered a fraudster and could not be trusted.
Gnanaraja admitted that he had been charged at the Shah Alam Sessions Court in April 2019 to three counts of cheating Zarul Ahmad for the payment of RM19 million which he had received between July 2017 and early 2018, which was said to be used to settle CZBUCG’s money laundering and graft investigations by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
In response to questions from Ramkarpal, Gnanaraja also admitted that he had received a letter of demand from Zarul Ahmad’s solicitors from Messrs Shahrul Hamidi and Noh sometime in July 2017. Ramkarpal asserted the claim that Gnanaraja was hence considered a fraudster.
Gnanaraja admitted that he had received the letter of demand and claimed that his lawyer Datuk Geethan Ram Vincent had replied to it, but denied the notion that he was a fraudster.
He denied notions suggested by Ramkarpal that his description of the RM19 million as a “friendly loan” in his testimony was tailor-made for him to admit to an alternative charge to the cheating charges in order to implicate Lim.
Cheating charges taken into consideration in alternative charge
The witness also admitted that he had been charged with cheating Zarul Ahmad at the Shah Alam High Court in April 2019, and this had shown that the allegation made by the former CZBUCG director was true.
Ramkarpal then showed that when the prosecution had offered an alternative charge on Dec 23, 2020, Gnanaraja had pleaded guilty to it. The prosecution had also wanted the cheating charges to be taken into consideration (TIC) in sentencing the alternative charge. Gnanaraja’s four lawyers, led by the late Datuk Wong Rhen Yen, had not objected to the TIC, and the witness had agreed to it.
However, when Lim’s defence counsel asserted that the TIC proves that Gnanaraja is a fraudster, Gnanaraja denied the allegation.
Prior to this, it was reported that Gnanaraja had pleaded guilty to the alternative charge — for an offence under the Companies Act 2016 for using his position as a director to obtain a personal gain — and had paid a RM230,000 fine.
Before this, Gnanaraja had testified that he had witnessed Zarul Ahmad give a bag containing RM1 million to Lim when the then-Penang CM had boarded Zarul Ahmad’s car on Aug 20, 2017, for the politician to then be dropped off at Publika shopping mall, here.
The witness had also testified that he had given an additional RM1 million to Lim from Zarul Ahmad, when the then-Penang CM had gone to his house on Aug 29, 2017.
Zarul Ahmad had previously testified to the handover of cash money to Lim in his car when Gnanaraja was on board, and had admitted that Gnanaraja had been used as a middleman to deliver the remaining RM1 million to give to the politician for the Penang undersea tunnel project.
The prosecution on Friday was led by deputy public prosecutors Datuk Wan Shaharuddin Wan Ladin and Mahadi Abdul Jumaat.
Lim is on trial for using his position as the then-Penang CM to solicit a 10% cut in the RM6.3 billion undersea tunnel project’s profits from Zarul Ahmad, in return for aiding Zarul Ahmad’s company to secure the project.
The 64-year-old former finance minister, who is the current Bagan member of Parliament and Ayer Putih assemblyman, is also accused of accepting RM3.3 million in kickbacks. A purported RM2 million paid on Aug 18, 2017, and Aug 29, 2017, via businessman Gnanaraja, is said to be part of the RM3.3 million.
Lim, who is currently DAP adviser, also faces two counts of dishonest misappropriation of property, in the release of two plots of state-owned land, cumulatively worth RM208.75 million, to Ewein Zenith Sdn Bhd and Zenith Urban Development — two property companies linked to the controversial undersea tunnel project.
The trial before Sessions Court judge Azura Alwi continues on March 3.