The widow of P Balasubramaniam, A Santamil Selvi, has sought to strike out a “second” defence statement filed by Deepak Jaikishan, and also have senior lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah to be removed from representing the carpet businessman at the High Court proceedings in Kuala Lumpur.

Santamil filed both applications on Nov 17 to strike out Deepak's second defence statement that was filed by Shafee's firm on Nov 6.

It is understood that Santamil's lawyer, Americk Sidhu, and Sarawak Report editor Claire Rewcastle Brown have affirmed an affidavit for this purpose.

It was reported on Nov 9 that Deepak gave two conflicting defences on the case, the first given by the carpet businessman himself to Americk on Oct 25, when he had then discharged Shafee. However, this defence given to Americk was not filed in court...