SHAH ALAM (Aug 10): Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating officer Mahendran Vrejenan told the High Court here that when he began investigating Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on suspicion of receiving bribes from Ultra Kirana Sdn Bhd (UKSB), he omitted other ministers also alleged to have received bribes from the company as he was only tasked with probing Zahid.
Mahendran was responding to questions posed by both the prosecution and the defence over the names of politicians in a ledger kept by a former UKSB manager as a record of whom he paid bribes to.
Testifying at Zahid's corruption trial, Mahendran told the court that while the names of a number of politicians and ministers had appeared in the ledger, he did not concern himself with them as his main task was to investigate Zahid and the bribes he allegedly received from UKSB.
The contributions were allegedly made between 2014 and 2018 to induce Zahid, in his capacity as a civil servant and the home minister then, to extend the contract of UKSB as the operator of the one-stop centre in China and the foreign visa system (VLN system) as well as to maintain an agreement with the company to supply VLN integrated system paraphernalia.
Deputy public prosecutor (DPP) Datuk Raja Rozela Raja Toran during examination-in-chief had asked Mahendran about the names in the ledger.
“My focus was to investigate the VLN, UKSB and Zahid…. I checked the ledgers, there were the names of VIPs. Khairy Jamaluddin and a few (other) ministers and politicians, but I saw that the money given to these individuals were not relevant to Zahid and the case I was investigating (the VLN) which were under the Home Ministry. So the other individuals were not involved in my investigations,” the officer said.
The UKSB ledger presented in court mentioned Senior Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, and Housing and Local Government Minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican as having allegedly received bribes.
All of them have publicly denied receiving the bribes.
Mahendran also told the court that other MACC officers have been tasked to investigate the names in these ledgers, and he was solely focused on his portion of the investigations.
Previously, a key witness in Zahid’s corruption trial had testified that apart from the former deputy prime minister, other politicians had also received funds from UKSB. A former director of UKSB, Wan Quoris Shah Wan Abdul Ghani, had told the Shah Alam High Court that contributions of between RM50,000 and RM200,000 were made to Khairy’s Umno Rembau division, and had not been given directly or personally to Khairy.
Under cross-examination by Zahid’s lawyer Datuk Ahmad Zaidi Zainal, Mahendran was asked if he had investigated the proxies of the ministers who had allegedly received the funds.
Mahendran said he had not investigated the proxies. He added that Hishammuddin’s name does not appear in the ledger as having taken bribes.
Wan Quoris had also previously said that the proxy of Hishammuddin had received the funds.
Also a witness, UKSB administrative manager David Tan Siong Sun had said that he was in charge of the ledger and its records of recipients.
At the trial, Mahendran admitted that Hishammuddin was not in the ledger of names who received bribes.
“Based on my investigations and witness statements, and checking ledgers and documents which were given by David Tan, there is no record of payment or documents relating to payments to Hishammuddin,” he said before judge Datuk Mohd Yazid Mustafa.
He was also asked again by the DPP during his examination-in-chief whether Hishammuddin’s name appeared in the ledger, to which he answered in the negative.
Zahid, 69, is facing 33 charges of receiving S$13.56 million (RM42 million) in bribes from UKSB as an inducement.
On another seven counts, Zahid is charged, as the then home minister, with having obtained S$1.15 million, RM3 million, 15,000 Swiss francs and US$15,000 in cash from the same company in connection with his official work.
He is charged with committing all the offences at Seri Satria, Presint 16, Putrajaya, and Country Heights, Kajang, between October 2014 and March 2018.
The trial continues on Thursday with Mahendran expected finish his testimony.
The prosecution will close its case after Mahendran is done on the stand.