High Court to rule on March 15 over Umno's RM116.7m claim

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur will decide on March 15 on an application by the Pakatan Harapan government to strike Umno's suit laying claim to RM116.7 million seized by police.

The cash was part of a haul worth between RM910 million and RM1.1 billion seized by police during last year's raids on properties linked to former premier Najib Abdul Razak.

High Court judge Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad set the date after hearing the application and argument from counsels representing both the suit's plaintiff and defendants in his chambers.

Senior federal counsel S Narkunavathy, who represented the government, police and three other defendants in the case, said the application to strike out Umno's claim was based on argument that the party has no locus standi, as they were challenging police's search warrant for the raids.

"They (Umno) do not have locus standi as they were challenging the arrest warrant.

"And the second argument is that we must wait until the Amla (Anti-Money Laundering Act) investigation is complete, as the money was seized under the Amla provisions.

"So there's a provision that says you cannot maintain a suit pending investigation for 12 months. The 12 months will expire in May," she told reporters today.

"The judge set this March 15 at 10am to deliver his decision," Hariharan Tara Singh, lead counsel for Umno, said.

Hariharan declined to comment on the plaintiff's argument in the striking-out application.

"What I can say is that we are confident, that's all."

In September last year, Umno filed the suit to claim the money seized which they said belonged to the party.

The suit named the five defendants as the government of Malaysia, inspector-general of police Fuzi Mohd Harun, (then) Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Amar Singh Ishar Singh, the police officer who led the operation to seize the money, Mohd Sakri Arifin, and a individual named Rajagopal Ramadhasas.

On June 27 last year, Amar announced that the police had seized items estimated to be worth between RM910 million and RM1.1 billion in raids on properties linked to Najib.

The haul included RM116.7 million in 26 different currencies, as well as various valuables including jewelry, luxury handbags, sunglasses, and watches.

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