The Kuala Lumpur High Court today postponed to July 22 the hearing of a leave application by Libyan-born entrepreneur Dr Sadeq Mustafa to challenge a police order that placed his company InventQJaya Sdn Bhd - an incubator of cutting edge technology - under receivership.

Justice Raus Sharif deferred the matter after Sadeg's lawyer Sankara Nair informed the court that he has yet to obtain a sealed copy (a court-authorised copy) of the summons from the court.

"Consequently, I am unable to serve the sealed copies to the Attorney-General's chambers (acting on behalf of the Royal Malaysian Police which was named as respondent in the summons) as required by the (High Court) Rule," he said.

He asked the court to give him time to serve the sealed copies as "he did not want to commit a procedural defect".

The court was also informed by Senior Federal Counsel Abdul Rahim Uda that the A-G's chambers will be raising a preliminary objection at the next hearing.

Sankara said the court could not elaborate any further as it is part of the procedure until the ex parte application is heard.

The ex-parte application - which named the inspector-general of police and the home minister as respondents - also seeks a stay order to prohibit and prevent any further action by the government that would be detrimental to Sadeq and InventQJaya.

Allegations of fraud

In January 2004, Sadeq, who was invited by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, set-up InventQJaya in Cyberjaya - Malaysia's Silicon Valley - after receiving a soft loan of RM437 million.

From this amount, RM228 million was disbursed.

In February this year, allegations of fraud in the company involving some RM50 million and mismanagement were reported in the media, leading the police to raid the premises.

Following this, the government took action to freeze the finances of InventQJaya in a bid to safeguard the remaining RM60 million loan and to protect its other long-term investments in the company.

Sadeg, who denied all allegations , stated that he had executed his obligations under the loan agreement by transferring eight technologies and more than 600 patents, hired and trained more than 140 scientists and technologists and conceived 53 new inventions in Malaysia.

In his affidavit filed on March 30, he claimed that his professionalism at work did not go down well with some former employees who were terminated due to poor performance and work ethics such as corruption, theft and document forgery.

According to Sadeq, things were smooth until Mahathir stepped down in November 2003.

He also claimed that "those who wanted to destroy him and the company had used a police report lodged by InventQJaya 's former chief financial officer Sushamma Gokhaled who alleged that he had committed a criminal breach of trust.