KUALA LUMPUR, May 10 — Claiming to have been financially “destroyed” by Malaysia’s former power couple, Deepak Jaikishan said he finally severed ties with Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and her husband Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2014.

But the carpet merchant who was once a close associate of the former prime minister and his wife also claimed he was forced back into their company and into using their lawyer over a lawsuit that was linked to the 2006 murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

“They destroyed me financially, there is no way anybody could go against them,” Deepak told Al Jazeera’s 101 East journalist Mary Ann Jolley in the interview aired yesterday morning titled “Malaysia: Power and Corruption”.

In June 2014, the family of late private investigator P. Balasubramaniam had filed a RM1.9 million lawsuit against Najib, Rosmah and seven others, including Deepak, for allegedly carrying out a conspiracy that forced them to live in exile in India for almost five years.

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Balasubramaniam, who was popularly known as PI Bala and died in 2013, was previously embroiled in a controversy over his two conflicting statutory declarations on Altantuya’s death, which remains very much in the public eye today.

Deepak claimed in the interview that he was forced to use Najib and Rosmah’s lawyer and file false defense statements exonerating the couple in the court case.

The businessman also said he had lodged a police report documenting his allegations.

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Last September, Deepak and his brother J. Rajesh filed a lawsuit against Rosmah to seek RM50 million in damages over an alleged conspiracy that caused his business losses.

Deepak accused Najib to have abused his position as the then prime minister to order Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Berhad to file various legal actions against him.

Najib has denied all the allegations during a separate interview with Jolley last October titled “Malaysia: Najib Speaks”.

“Malaysia: Power and Corruption” is the final installment of the 101 East programme on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal and followed an earlier documentary titled “Malaysia: The World’s Biggest Heist,” which featured extensive interviews with the whistleblower who helped expose the scandal.