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©Malaysiakini (Used by permission)
by Soon Li Tsin

Royal commission member Mahadev Shankar today refused to recuse himself from the inquiry, charging that the application made to seek his recusal was attempted to scuttle the hearing into the Lingam tape.

He said that he was shocked by the nature of the allegations made against him in the application seeking his recusal.

"I was shocked by the application and categorically dispute it. I decline to recuse myself," he said this morning when the inquiry resumed after a two-day break.

On Wednesday, lawyer Hazman Ahmad, who is representing former chief justice Mohd Eusoff Chin, one of the key witnesses in the inquiry, made a written application, citing Mahadev’s ‘relationship’ with lawyer VK Lingam as the grounds for the application.

Today the grounds were disclosed to the commission - that Lingam had arranged for eye specialist, Dr Albert Owen Edwards from the Mayo clinic in the US to fly in from Bangkok to treat Mahadev’s eye condition.

Lingam is also said to have foot the bill for the accommodation of the specialist and his family here in Kuala Lumpur.

"This is all false. All my medical expenses for my eye disorder were paid by the government," said Mahadev.

"The medical records will prove this," he added.

He said that the application seeking his recusal was an "attempt to scandalise and scuttle the proceedings".

The commissioner said that in late June last year, he recovered sufficiently. However, he said he was only required to undergo outpatient treatment at the hospital.

To prove that his eyesight was alright, Mahadev pointed to and called out the names of all the lawyers seated on the first, second and third rows of the counsel's bench.

Mahadev even identified certain people seated on the first and last rows of the public gallery. This drew laughter from those present in the courtroom.

No contact with Lingam

Eusoff's recusal application was only supported by an affidavit from Lingam.

Based on this Mahadev said Hazman failed to acquire affidavits from other named individuals such a Dr Joseph Eravelly who assisted Edwards during his trip here.

Meanwhile, in Eravelly’s statutory declaration, he denied asking Lingam to foot Edwards’ holiday bill but merely assisted in organising parts of the tours and a lecture scheduled in a local university.

Mahadev also denied that he had any contact with Lingam save for meeting him briefly before the lecture when Edwards observed Mahadev’s eye condition.

"Edwards was taking an interest in local medical procedures being implemented by Selayang Hospital on their patients (which included me) with a view of incorporating this information into his lecture.

"The allegations (by Lingam) that I thanked him and told him I was very grateful and indebted to him is an outright fabrication and totally untrue," he said.

Lingam’s lawyer R Thayalan then made an oral application to the commission on the grounds that his client be given time to rebut the ‘disparaging’ remarks made against him by Mahadev.

Mahadev proceeded to quiz him how should he answer to ‘vicious’ accusations levied by Lingam himself.

Robert Lazar - who was acting for the Malaysian Bar - defended the commissioner’s move and said Lingam was the ‘author of this own misfortune’ for raising matters that could be challenged.

The application was subsequently rejected.

Khoo: Highly presumptuous

Similarly, another application seeking to disqualify commission member Prof Dr Khoo Kay Kim was also rejected by the commission today.

Lingam had on Wednesday made the application citing that there could be a conflict of interest if Khoo sat in the commission to hear and decide on evidence tendered by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah as they were both commission members of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam).

However, Khoo disputed this nexus today, saying that he had "little interaction" with Shafee in Suhakam despite sitting on the human right commission’s editorial board.

Meanwhile, Khoo said the reasons advanced requesting him to recuse himself from further hearing the proceedings were more conjectural than real.

He said the claim that he and Shafee frequently met was untrue and it was highly presumptuous to suggest that because Shafee and he were members of Suhakam, he must unavoidably support Shafee’s views.

"I belong to the boring corridors of an academic institution and he functions in the vibrant atmosphere of the mahkamah (courts).

"It may not be east is east and west is west, certainly seldom do the ‘twain shall meet," he said.

The commission ended to today at 6.30pm. They are due to submit a report to the King on March 11.

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