Balasubramaniam Perumal, 47, a private investigator who was hired by Abdul Razak Baginda. He is the first witness for the prosecution of the Mongolian model murder trial
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Abdul Razak 'hired private eye to keep ex-lover away'
Lead prosecutor Tun Majid Tun Hamzah told the court yesterday that Abdul Razak met Ms Altantuya in 2004, and had a relationship with her until August 2005.
He used to give her money but stopped early last year. She came several times to Malaysia to hound him for money and hired a private investigator to find out where he lived.
In her final, and fateful, encounter with Abdul Razak, the prosecution alleged, she went to Kuala Lumpur with two Mongolian women friends on Oct 8 last year.
She tried to meet Abdul Razak several times at his office, but he refused to see her.
According to the prosecutor, she left him several notes demanding money and also threatened his daughter, Rowena.
Yesterday, the trial's first witness, Mr Balasubramaniam Perumal, a private
investigator hired by Abdul Razak to keep Ms Altantuya away from him and his family, told the court that the political analyst had asked him to follow his teenage daughter to her school in early October last year.
He said he also chaperoned Rowena home before leaving for Abdul Razak's office to accompany the latter home.
Abdul Razak Baginda and his wife Mazlinda Makhzan trying to make their way past the media crowd at the High Court in Shah Alam.
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However, Mr Tun Majid said, Ms Altantuya kept harassing Abdul Razak.
The political analyst then asked a friend who was a senior police officer for advice. The friend introduced him to Azilah.
According to Mr Tun Majid, a note was found in Azilah's office listing the name of Abdul Razak's private investigator, the place where Ms Altantuya had stayed and her number.
There was also evidence to show that Azilah and Sirul Azhar were in the lobby of Hotel Malaya in Chinatown, where Ms Altantuya and her friends were staying.
The prosecutor said that when Ms Altantuya went to Abdul Razak's house on Oct 19 last year, the latter called Azilah.
Azilah and Sirul Azhar arrived at Abdul Razak's house in a car, and bundled her away.
"There is witness evidence to show that they were the last persons to be seen with the deceased," Mr Tun Majid said.
Wife of Abdul Razak, Ms Mazlinda Makhzan, wearing a T-shirt which showed her support.
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Evidence will also be adduced to show that she was taken to the forest clearing, where she was killed.
According to the prosecutor, Ms Altantuya had told her friends that if she did not return to the hotel within two or three hours that night, they should lodge a police report.
She had also filed a report less than eight hours before her disappearance which stated that if something should happen to her, the police should look for "Razak Baginda".
The prosecutor's account of the events is remarkably similar to Abdul Razak's own account stated in his affidavit filed in January this year.
The one key difference between the prosecution's case and the defence's cases is that Abdul Razak had insisted he told Azilah not to do anything to harm Ms Altantuya.
So, the case is likely to turn on this point: What exactly did Abdul Razak tell Azilah to do?
