Prominent lawyer and opposition politician R Sivarasa was quizzed by the police for almost four hours over private investigator P Balasubramaniam’s explosive statutory declaration.

He arrived at the Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID) in Jalan Dato Onn in Kuala Lumpur at 10am today accompanied by his lawyer Oh Choong Ghee and left only after 2pm.

sivarasa at PDRM 260708 Met later, the PKR vice-president and Subang MP said his statement was recorded from 10.30am.

Sivarasa revealed that he was questioned about Balasubramaniam's statutory declaration which linked Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Balasubramaniam had retracted the statutory declaration after just one day and stated that all allegations concerning the deputy premier were inaccurate.

In his second declaration dated July 3, the private investigator claimed that the first was made under duress.

Following this, he left the country to an undisclosed destination with his wife and three children. The reason for this is also being investigated by the police.

Probe second declaration as well

Sivarasa said the police had quizzed him on Balasubramaniam's claim that he made his first statutory declaration under duress.

"But I told them that he made it voluntarily and it was done truthfully," he told reporters.

The contents of the first statutory declaration was revealed at a press conference called by PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Sivarasa said he informed the police of his confidence that the first statutory declaration was true and recorded voluntarily.

p balasubramaniam private investigator najib razak baginda altantuya murder case 3 In view of this, he urged the police to probe into the veracity of the second statutory declaration which intimates that the first was prepared without Balasubramaniam’s volition.

"The investigation is slanted towards the first declaration. I don’t mind the police conducting an investigation on the matter but the same effort must be made to investigate the second one too," he said.

According to Sivarasa, Balasubramaniam met him some two months before the private investigator released the first statutory declaration at the July 3 press conference.

"He told me what he knew with regards to the Altantuya murder and I told him to get a lawyer and seek his advice on what to do," said Sivarasa, who reiterated that he is certain that the private investigator made the first statutory declaration uncoerced.

The PKR leader said the public is interested to know which of the two declarations made by Balasubramaniam contains the truth and the authorities must do their best to get to the bottom of this.

Royal commission needed

"That is why we in PKR reiterate our position that a royal commission should be set up to probe this matter. Only an independent body can act impartially towards ascertaining as to which of the two declarations is the truth," he added.

Apart from setting up a royal commission, Sivarasa also stressed that the court should revise its decision to not call Najib to testify in the ongoing murder trial.

DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh filed an application with the Shah Alam High Court last Monday to call Najib and Balasubramaniam to testify.

The application was rejected two days later.

Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, who is closely linked to the deputy premier, and two elite personnel have been charged with abetment and murder respectively. All three face the death sentence if convicted.

Sivarasa is the fourth lawyer to be called in by the police in relation to the statutory declaration probe. The Bar Council had expressed concern over this.