KUALA LUMPUR: Businessman Deepak Jaikishan said Datuk Seri Azmin Ali's infamous remarks of 'telur Deepak' (Deepak's egg) severely tarnished his reputation and integrity as a businessman.
He said Azmin's remark which was uttered during a ceramah last year was a blatant lie and ruined his birthday celebration, which should have been a joyous occasion.
"I was supposed to be busy cutting my birthday cake when I heard about Azmin's statement against me.
"It was a cruel thing for him (Azmin) to lie about me on stage like that... it hurt me," he said before High Court judicial commissioner Leong Wai Hong today.
Deepak said this when testifying as a witness in J&E Advance Tech Sdn Bhd's defamation suit against Azmin over the latter's allegation that the company was awarded the project to import eggs from India via direct negotiation by the government.
During examination-in-chief by counsel Weera Premananda, who appeared for the company, Deepak said that there were no instances of open tender or direct negotiation involved, as the government had issued an import license to the company to bring in eggs from India.
He said Azmin's insinuation that J&E obtained a permit to import eggs because of his friendship with Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the wife of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was also an unpleasant remark.
"It is a vile statement, especially for me, coming from someone like Azmin... especially with him repeating the word 'eggs'.
"When he said 'Rosmah's friend'... it was evil because everyone knows she is my biggest enemy. She destroyed my business," he said.
Earlier, Deepak's younger brother Rajesh, who is also J&E general manager, testified that Azmin's allegations were untrue because there were no direct negotiations with the government to obtain the egg import license.
Rajesh said his brother has no legal ties with the company and is only familiar with it due to their familial relationship.
"Deepak has no relationship with the plaintiff (J&E) or was he involved in the importing of the eggs from India. The defendant's statements are wholly untrue and unsubstantiated."
Rajesh said the company had made a transparent application to the Malaysian Veterinary Services Department for approval due to the shortage of eggs in the country.
"Stringent requirements were fulfilled by J&E in relation to the regulations by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) in India and likewise by the Department of Veterinary Services, Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry and Malaysian Quarantine and Inspection Services Department (MAQIS) in Malaysia.
"As a consequence of the defendant's careless statements alleging that the eggs were of poor and/or subpar quality, the plaintiff has suffered loss in business," he said.
The company is seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages from Azmin. It is also seeking a court order to stop Azmin from repeating the impugned statement.
On March 12, last year, during a PN ceramah at Pas' base in Taman Melewar, Azmin alleged that the government had awarded the project to import eggs from India via direct negotiations.
He claimed that the direct award of the contract contradicted the promise of an open tender process made by the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Azmin also claimed that the minister in charge, Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, had taken the businessman involved in his visit to India recently.
On Feb 28, last year, Mohamad was reported to have said that only one company was permitted to import eggs from India and that the move was taken to deal with the lack of supply of eggs in the local market.
However, when answering a question from Putrajaya MP Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin in Parliament, Mohamad admitted that the company that imported eggs from India did not go through the open tender process because it was a "special case".