A former journalist facing a RM22 million defamation suit by business tycoon Vincent Tan and two of his companies, today urged the Bar Council to act against the plaintiffs and their lawyer for "intimidating his parents" while pursuing the matter.

In a letter addressed to the Bar Council chairman, Ganesh Sahathevan, a former employee of The Sun who is now residing in Sydney alleged that V. Kanagalingam, the lawyer representing Tan, Berjaya Group and Berjaya Sports Toto, had on Feb 26 attempted to serve a writ and summons on him at his parents' home in Klang despite being aware that he is living in Australia.

"I submit that his (Kanagalingam's) motive was intimidation of my family; for his actions and that of the plaintiffs have caused my retired parents much anxiety," Ganesh told malaysiakini in a telephone interview today.

"My mother actually felt that I was going to be brought back to the country in handcuffs," he said.

Tan, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of the two companies, is suing Ganesh for RM10 million and Berjaya Group and Berjaya Sports Toto are claiming RM5 million and RM7 million respectively for defamation.

The writ was to stop Ganesh from writing, publishing or circulating defamatory allegations. Despite a police report against Ganesh, Tan has alleged that the former journalist had continue to send numerous email messages to various persons and authorities to vilify his character and undermine the companies' business and trading reputation.

Ganesh was, on Jan 14, 1997, sacked by the newspaper company of which Tan is the executive chairman, for failing to attend a domestic inquiry to investigate various charges of misconduct.

He referred the matter to the Human Resources Minister, who then directed the dispute to the Industrial Court which commenced hearing on July 14 last year.

The court hearing was, however, postponed to August the same year, after Kanagalingam told the judge that he had to attend the coronation ceremony of the Terengganu Sultan. The August hearing was again adjourned when Kanagalingam fell ill at the last minute. The new hearing date is now set for May this year.

Ganesh added that Kanagalingam's assertion that he might be served via his parents' home could not have been grounded on any reasonable argument.

"Nevertheless, he proceeded with an application for an order of a permanent injunction against me, before Justice R. K. Nathan, on March 7, 2000. However, instead of proceeding with the hearing, he asked the court for an adjournment on the grounds that he needed time to serve me outside the jurisdiction," he said.

"Thus it appears that Lingam has admitted publicly that service was invalid and he executed the service not to properly notify me of the matter, but rather for some other motive," he added.

Ganesh said that his suspicions that intimidation was indeed Kanagalingam's and his clients' motive was heightened by the fact the subject matter of his writing which they sought to restrain included reference to photographs of "Lingam and the Chief Justice on holiday in New Zealand" ([#1] www.malaysia.net/special[/#] ).

In a related development, Ganesh refuted a March 8 report in The Sun newspaper which claimed that his (Ganesh's) solicitors demanded Sun Media to pay him compensation amounting to RM44,000, which the company rejected.

"My lawyers did send a letter dated Oct 26 last year to the plaintiff for an offer of settlement, not a demand. The offer was open for two weeks and there was no response. However, we clearly stated that the letter was sent without prejudice and should the other party not agree to it, the contents of the letter should not arise again," he said.

Meanwhile, attempts to contact Kanagalingam at his office VK Lingam and Co, for his comments were unsuccessful.