Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd director Deepak Jaikishan has filed a suit against former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife, seeking a declaration that the couple was responsible for paying the tax arrears owed by them to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

The suit, which named Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd, Deepak and his brother, J. Rajesh, who is also the company director, was filed yesterday through the legal firm of Messrs. David Gurupatham & Koay.

Besides, Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor, they also named Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim as the defendants.

In the statement of claim, Deepak stated that between 2004 and 2010, he and the company had acted as agent and proxy to Najib and Rosmah in land transaction and business deals as instructed by the couple.

He also claimed that Abdul Azeez acted as agent for Najib and Rosmah to carry out the transactions and acted as the intermediary between the couple and Carpet Raya.

Deepak claimed that as a result of the transactions, he received a letter from the IRB, dated March 2, 2018, to settle the arrears in tax owed by Carpet Raya and his income tax, totalling more than RM6 million, excluding penalty charges and interest.

The plaintiffs claimed that they were also required to pay the tax arrears in instalments for 24 months from January 2018 until December 2019 in line with the decision given by the Finance Ministry through a letter dated Sept 21, 2017.

Deepak claimed that he received the letter from IRB after his relations with the couple soured in 2012 following his refusal to follow their instructions in a civil case involving private investigator P. Balasubramaniam, claiming that Abdul Azeez had knowledge of the matter.

The plaintiffs claimed that Najib and Rosmah also ordered legal action to be taken by IRB against Carpet Raya and a winding-up petition was filed against the company on March 22, 2017, by the IRB and the petition was published in the newspapers.

They claimed that as a result of the petition, the business and reputation of all the plaintiffs were affected and Deepak was also banned from leaving the country, while their business facilities were withdrawn by Maybank and the company's contract with Ikea was cancelled.

They are seeking a court declaration that Najib and Rosmah are responsible for paying the tax arrears owed by the company.

They are also seeking damages of RM500,000 which was paid to Maybank, RM47 million for the company's inability to fulfil its contract and sales, RM74 million for cancellation of the company's contract with Ikea, RM200 million for alleged defamation and RM37 million in losses caused by Najib’s misconduct.

They are also seeking RM100 million in aggravated and exemplary damages.

- Bernama