The Bar Council today strongly condemned those responsible for throwing Molotov cocktails into the home of a prominent lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon on Nov 18.

The incident is believed to be related to the 'interviews' which Manjeet had carried out with private investigator P Balasubramaniam recently.

bar council suhakam memo 5 detained lawyers incident 200509 ragunath Bar Council chairperson Ragunath Kesavan said the throwing of the Molotov cocktails were a calculated act to intimidate and harass Manjeet to cease acting in the interest of his client.

"We call on the police to conduct a thorough investigation to ensure that these perpetrators are apprehended and charged in court," he said in a statement.

"The Bar Council firmly believes that such an act of cowardice by the perpetrator/s must never be rewarded with impunity," he added.

He said that it was of utmost importance that members of the Bar were able to carry out their duties in upholding justice without fear or favour.

This violent act against a member of the Bar, who was simply exercising his duties, was an assault to the cause of justice, added Ragunath.

"The police must pursue this matter diligently and transparently so that all members of the Bar are protected against intimidation during the course of representing their clients," he said.

It could be a warning

Manjeet and his family were away in London when his home in Damansara Heights was attacked at 7.20pm on Wednesday night last week. The resulting fire caused damage to the garage wall of his house.

raja petra demafation case 200109 manjeet singh dhillon Manjeet had said that the incident may be a "warning and threat" to him and his family over his presence at a recent recording of the interview with Balasubramaniam.

"It is tragic. Those who have elected to issue such threats have failed to appreciate that lawyers have a role to play in the discharge of their professional duties," said Manjeet.

However, he asserted that his presence at the interview was to act as Americk Sidhu's lawyer, who had acted for Balasubramaniam in the making of his first statutory declaration.

Balasubramaniam is back in the news against following revelations that he had been paid by people close to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to recant his statutory declaration which implicated the latter with murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

His second statutory declaration cleared Najib of any wrongdoing. He also went missing after making the second declaration until his recent appearance in an online video interview on popular video sharing website Youtube.

In the interview, Balasubramaniam alleged that he was offered RM5 million by one 'Deepak' to retract his first statutory declaration.

Rolling text on the video suggests that 'Deepak' was linked to first lady Rosmah Mansor and that the interview was conducted on Oct 27 in the presence of three Malaysian lawyers, one of whom was Manjeet Singh Dhillon.