KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Businessman G Gnanaraja rejected the defence’s claim that a bag containing RM1 million was never handed to Lim Guan Eng, maintaining that the exchange did take place openly and while Lim was dressed in his official attire as Penang chief minister.

Gnanaraja, 44, said this under cross-examination by Ramkarpal Singh, who represents Lim in the corruption trial linked to the Penang major roads and undersea tunnel project involving the Bagan MP.

Ramkarpal put it to the witness that the alleged handover was implausible.

Ramkarpal: I suggest to you that the bag was never handed to Lim Guan Eng as claimed. It defies logic that, as Chief Minister at the time, he would go to Publika on a busy Sunday in official attire, carrying a bag supposedly filled with RM1 million. That simply did not happen.

Gnanaraja: It may defy logic, but it happened.

On August 27 last year, Gnanaraja told the court he handed a black bag containing RM1 million in cash to Lim while dropping him off at Publika, Hartamas, on August 20, 2017.

He said Lim accepted the bag and then patted the shoulder of Datuk Zarul Ahmad Mohd Zulkifli, then director of Consortium Zenith Construction Sdn Bhd (CZCSB), who was seated in the driver’s seat.

Ramkarpal: I put it to you, Mr Gana (Gnanaraja), that at the meeting, according to your version, Lim Guan Eng got out of the car and none of his officers met him. Do you agree?

Gnanaraja: Yes, none.

The 37th prosecution witness further told the court that he could not recall the precise location in the vicinity of Publika where he handed over the RM1 million in cash.

According to the amended first charge, Lim, 64, is accused, in his capacity as the then chief minister of Penang, of abusing his position to receive a bribe of RM3.3 million to assist a company owned by Zarul Ahmad in securing the Major Roads and Undersea Tunnel Construction Project in Penang, valued at RM6,341,383,702.

The offence allegedly took place between January 2011 and August 2017 at the Chief Minister’s Office in Penang.

Under the amended second charge, Lim is accused of soliciting a 10 per cent bribe out of the project’s future profits from Zarul Ahmad for assisting his company in securing the same project.

The solicitation allegedly took place near The Gardens Hotel, Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City, between 12.30am and 2.00am in March 2011.

Additionally, Lim faces two charges of disposing of a couple of state-owned lots of land in Penang, valued at RM208.8 million, to a developer linked to the undersea tunnel project.

These offences were allegedly committed at the Penang Land and Mines Office, Komtar, on February 17, 2015, and March 22, 2017.

The trial before Judge Azura Alwi is scheduled to resume on March 3. — Bernama