Undersea tunnel case: IRB raided my home, office, witness says

The tax authorities raided the home and office of a key prosecution witness in a graft case against ex-Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng, the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court heard.

Businessperson Zarul Ahmad Zulkifli testified the raid took place in 2017 when the issue of the RM6.3 billion Penang undersea tunnel project was the talk of the public.

The former director of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd - awarded the controversial project - testified that he told businessperson G Gnanaraja about the raids in August 2017.

Before trial judge Azura Alwi, Zarul (above) claimed that a politician was behind the raid.

“They looked at documents, took everything,” Zarul replied during a cross-examination by Haijan Omar, who acted for Lim.

The key prosecution witness added that he was in a state of fear as he then had kept a significant amount of cash in his office, which he claimed was meant for Lim.

However, Zarul disagreed with Haijan’s contention that there was no truth in the claim that the money in the office was for the purpose of payment to Lim.

Haijan’s line of cross-examination was over a transcript of a WhatsApp conversation between Zarul and Gnanaraja, who is also a key witness in the graft trial against Lim.

The trial before Azura resumes tomorrow.

The charges

Zarul was the target of Lim’s impeachment bid to discredit the witness’ testimony. The criminal court will determine the validity of Zarul’s testimony at the end of the prosecution’s case.

Lim is on trial over four corruption charges involving the planned construction of Penang’s undersea tunnel and paired roads project connecting the island to the mainland.

He is accused of abusing his power as then-Penang chief minister for the first charge to obtain RM3.3 million in monetary gratification as an inducement to appoint Zarul’s company to implement the project worth RM6,341,383,702.

The Bagan MP allegedly committed the offence between January 2011 and August 2017 at the Penang Chief Minister’s Office.

On the second charge, Lim was alleged to have asked Zarul for 10 percent of profits as a reward for helping his company secure the project.

He was purported to have committed the offence at The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, in Kuala Lumpur, between 12.30am and 2am in March 2011.

He also faces two counts of dishonestly disposing of two plots of land belonging to the Penang government in Bandar Tanjong Pinang worth RM208 million to the developer of the tunnel project, which allegedly took place at the State Land and Mines Office in Komtar on Feb 17, 2015, and March 22, 2017.

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