Death Of A Thespian

Written by John Berthelsen

FRIDAY, 15 MARCH 2013

Private detective who tied prime minister to relationship with murdered woman has heart attack

Perumal Balasubramaniam, a former private detective who rocked Malaysia with allegations that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had had a sexual relationship with Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian beauty who was murdered in 2006 by two of Najib's bodyguards, died today of a heart attack.

Americk Siddhu, Balasubramaniam's lawyer, said the 53-year-old detective met with doctors this morning to determine whether he needed a coronary bypass operation, then returned to his home, where he suffered chest pains. He died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital, Siddhu said.

With national elections apparently just around the corner before June, Balasubramaniam has played a major role for the opposition, detailing his involvement in the case. Bala, as he was known, was a former policeman who was hired in 2006 by Abdul Razak Baginda, one of Najib's best friends and a defense analyst from the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre think-tank, to attempt to keep Altantuya away from Razak Baginda because he had jilted her. 

In a sworn statement issued in 2008, Bala alleged that the Mongolian beauty had first had an affair with Najib, who passed her on to Razak Baginda because Najib, then defense minister, didn't want to have a mistress around when he became prime minister. Najib succeeded Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in office in 2009.

Before she was killed, according to Bala's statement, she told him she, Razak Baginda and Najib had been together at a dinner in Paris during a transaction to buy French submarines for which Najib and Razak Baginda allegedly later were paid US$150 million in bribes. The statement contained excruciating and sensational details of the dead woman's sexual practices. Read more.