KUALA LUMPUR: Businessman Datuk Ranjeet Singh Sidhu, who is a former managing director of a telecommunications firm, has been charged with corruption over a RM400mil loan to finance a fibre optic network project in Malaysia.
The 56-year-old is accused of providing a RM8mil bribe to the former president and managing director of a bank through an intermediary, as an inducement to approve the said loan application by V Telecoms Bhd 14 years ago.
According to the first charge, the loan was intended to finance the development of a coastal fibre optic network covering the entirety of Peninsular Malaysia, Bernama reported.
The offence is alleged to have occurred at a bank in Jalan Sultan Ismail here on June 29, 2012.
The charge under Section 16(b)(A) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act 2009 [Act 694] provides for a jail term of up to 20 years and a fine of not less than five times the value of the bribe or RM10,000, whichever is higher, upon conviction.
Ranjeet also faces a separate charge of fraudulently submitting false particulars in a Joint Completion Guarantee to satisfy the conditions for the approval of the said loan.
He is charged under Section 471 of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, a fine or both, upon conviction.
Earlier during the proceedings, deputy public prosecutor Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan offered bail of RM150,000 in one surety, along with extra conditions requiring the surrender of the accused’s passport and monthly reporting to the MACC headquarters until the disposal of the case.
Lawyer Datuk Gobinath Mohanna requested a lower amount and informed the court that his client’s passport is currently held by the MACC.
Judge Rosli Ahmad granted bail of RM150,000 in one surety and allowed the additional conditions as requested by the prosecution.
The court fixed March 30 for the next case mention.
