A company with links to the Johor royal family wants its director, Kamal Hisham Jaafar, to return from Dubai to answer questions on six police reports the company has lodged against him, alleging fraud, criminal breach of trust and cheating.

NONE Lawyer Baljit Singh Sidhu said his firm was recently appointed by the company, Southern Ads Sdn Bhd, which wants to respond to the claims made by Kamal Hisham, a company director since 2004.

"Kamal Hisham was a director and also acted as a lawyer for the company in certain matters. Sometime in March last year, the company appointed an external auditor that detected some questionable transactions, and the company secretary decided to lodge a police report against Kamal Hisham.

“Since March 31, five other police reports have been lodged against Kamal Hisham, about which the company does not want to divulge details, except to say that these are related to criminal breach of trust, cheating and fraud,” Baljit said.

He said Kamal Hisham, who is believed to be in Dubai, has been out of the country since the first report was lodged against him.

He said Kamal Hisham has also made certain unwarranted accusations against Southern Ads.

'Company wants to set record straight'

This is the reason, Baljit said, that the company wants to set the record straight.

“We want him to return and cooperate with the authorities and answer questions over the reports made. The company wants to bring the matter to a close.

“He cannot be making allegations from outside the country against the company, without answering to the reports made,” Baljit said.

“We came to know that the police had tried to contact Kamal Hisham since his press statement on Jan 31, on which he spoke to the press via telephone.”

Police informed him that subsequent to Kamal Hisham's press conference, the authorities were able to contact him once and no more after that.

He said he was told that Kamal Hisham wanted assurances of his personal safety if he were to assist the authorities.

Baljit also said that Kamal Hisham had claimed he had no access to the police reports lodged against him, adding that as a lawyer, he should know that the police were not obliged to give him copies of the reports until he was charged in court.

"Therefore, he should stop running away from the issues and return home. He can win awards in Dubai, but he should not shirk from his responsibilities back at home," he said.

"There is no issue of preparing one's defence if one has not been charged in court. The fact that Kamal Hisham is preparing his defence shows that he is trying to come up with arguments for not telling the truth."

Baljit said the police have issued a Section 111 Criminal Procedure Code order to Kamal Hisham's family members and his legal firm partners, informing him to contact the police.

"A second Section 111 notice was also issued, specifying the time and place for him to appear and give statements.

“This notice was issued to his solicitors but the solicitors have returned the notice, stating they have no instructions to accept it," Baljit said, adding that since his Jan 31 statement to the press, Kamal Hisham has been avoiding the issue.

In its statement, Southern Ads denied that there were personal issues involved, as claimed by Kamal Hisham.

In fact, the company said, it was Kamal Hisham who was running from his responsibilities by not returning to the country.