A 1994 photograph showing Datuk V.K. Lingam and Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin and their families on holiday in New Zealand.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry has recommended that the Anti-Corruption Agency reopen investigations into the relationship between former chief justice Tun Mohd Eusoff Chin and lawyer Datuk V.K. Lingam.
| Flashback: Eusoff Chin (left) and V.K. Lingam fishing while on vacation in New Zealand in December 1994. |
In particular, it wants the ACA to look into the holiday that the two and their families took at the same time in New Zealand in December 1994.
It also recommended that the ACA investigate a number of other judges who received gifts from Lingam.
The commission noted that an earlier investigation into Eusoff’s holiday with Lingam was said to have been closed by former attorney-general Tan Sri Mohtar Abdullah.
It said the case should be reopened following fresh allegations made under oath by witnesses G. Jayanti and V. Thirunama Karasu during the inquiry.
“Fresh investigations should be invoked because they constitute such a horrific imputation of impropriety against Eusoff and a few other judges that public confidence not only in the judiciary but also in the integrity of the ACA will be compromised unless some positive action is seen to be taken,” the report said.
Thirunama is Lingam’s younger brother while Jayanti is his former secretary.
Thirunama had lodged a report in 1998 alleging corruption involving judges, including Eusoff.
He stated that he had sent several gifts from his brother Lingam to several judges.
A sustained attempt was made to cast doubts on Thirunama’s sanity in the inquiry but the commission noted the witness had an “elephantine memory for dates and events”.
“In the case of Jayanti, her motives were impugned. But we thought she was a credible witness,” it said.
Jayanti had testified that she made holiday arrangements for Lingam’s and Eusoff’s families to New Zealand in December 1994.
The report said the trip was “rather startling” because there was evidence that Eusoff and his family had spent almost the entire holiday with Lingam and his family.
Eusoff had testified that he and his family had “bumped” into Lingam and his family at Changi Airport, Singapore, while on their way to New Zealand.
It was revealed in evidence they were together most of the time while holidaying there but, when asked about this, Eusoff merely said they were all coincidences.
“Given the amazing number of alleged coincidences, we need no more than mere common sense to detect the incredulity of that proposition.”
The report said evidence had been led through Eusoff and Lingam to portray Jayanti as unreliable and having an axe to grind.
“Having looked at the demeanour of Jayanti giving evidence and taking into account her evidence in totality, it is more probable that the trip was pre-planned.”
The commission said the intent of the report in respect of the fixing of judicial appointments and promotions was “not merely to treat the patient but to eradicate the disease”.
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“In other words, a determined effort must be made to get to the root of the malaise which has been uncovered,” it added.
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