Newly-appointed MIC treasurer-general R Ramanan was today ordered by the Kuala Lumpur High Court to return RM5.5 million to psychiatrist Dr M Mahadevan which he had fraudulently received from the psychiatrist when “assisting” Mahadevan to recover a payment four years ago, reports Bernama .

Judicial Commissioner Lee Heng Cheong, in his decision, said he agreed with Dr Mahadevan’s counsel that Ramanan had fraudulently misrepresented himself to the plaintiff, resulting in him to transfer the money into the defendant’s personal account on May 19, 2010.

This follows Ramanan had allegedly misrepresented Mahadevan, and said he could retrieve a RM26 million debt from the Defence Ministry by showing a letter from the Defence Ministry that was proven in court to be a forged letter guaranteeing payment.

This led to Mahadevan paying Ramanan for the services, only later to find out that the letter was forged.

Lee also ruled that the defendant had failed to prove, as claimed in his statement of defence, that the money was purportedly for a proposed township development project in Sg Petani, Kedah, on a piece of land belonging to Dr Mahadevan.

Ramanan was ordered to pay the money within 14 days from today, but following his application, the court allowed an interim stay of execution pending an application next Monday.

Dr Mahadevan, 85, a former chief psychiatrist to the government and founder of the Malaysian Psychiatric Association, was in court today.

According to court documents, the plaintiff had filed a letter of demand amounting to RM26.6 million against the Defence Ministry for the use of land belonging to Dr Mahadevan which was used as a firing range from 1968 to 1988.

In May 2010, the defendant had represented to the plaintiff that he could assist in securing Dr Mahadevan’s claim and in return he would require RM6.5 million.

Both parties later agreed the amount to be reduced to RM5.5 million, Bernama reported.

In his statement of claim, Dr Mahadevan had included a letter, dated April 2010, from the Defence Ministry which was shown to him by the defendant, purportedly approving the claim.

Dr Mahadevan were represented by counsels Lavinia Kumaraendran and Cassandra Lee, while Ramanan were represented by lawyers Harjit Singh and Mahendra Maheson.

- Bernama