KUALA LUMPUR: Community Communications Department (J-Kom) staff Abdul Wahab Kadir Jilani has filed a RM5 million defamation suit against blogger Badrul Hisham Shaharin, popularly known as Chegubard.
He filed the suit at the High Court here today via Faizal Rahman & Co. and named Badrul Hisham as the sole defendant.
The plaintiff claimed that the defendant had made a defamatory statement by uploading a video in his Facebook account suggesting the plaintiff and former J-Kom director-general Dr Mohammad Agus Yusoff were engaged in a sexually-explicit conversation.
The plaintiff claimed that Chegubard had falsely implied that Wahab was involved in immoral or homosexual activities.
Wahab asserted that the impugned video was edited by the defendant and if the video exists, it was personal and belongs to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff asserted that he has lost his source of income due to the issue.
"The impugned statement has brought shame, tarnished the dignity and damaged the plaintiff's image as a Muslim, public servant, and politician.
"The impugned statement is false, fabricated, untrue, and made with malicious intent to tarnish the plaintiff's image, undermine his dignity, and harm his reputation," claimed Wahab.
He claimed the defendant wanted to gain personal benefits in the form of popularity and to enhance his position among his followers and the public.
"He (Defendant) published the defamatory statement with the intention to insult, degrade, embarrass, and expose the plaintiff to hatred, ridicule, and scorn, leading the public to shun the latter
"The defendant through his posting on Nov 18, 2023, admitted that he was the one who published and disseminated the video to the public.
"He used the word 'Wahab' which clearly and directly refers to the plaintiff. The video also distinctly shows the plaintiff's face," he claimed.
Wahab is seeking RM5 million in aggravated and exemplary damages.
Previously, a clip of Agus and Wahab's conversation of a sexual nature went viral just hours after the J-Kom chief confirmed his resignation.
Both of them had denied the video's authenticity, claiming that the audio had been doctored by someone they identified as Mr H.
Wahab had claimed that he was lured by Mr H through promises of positions in the government department if he was willing to frame Agus.
He had claimed that Mr H had instructed him to record a video conversation with Agus to obtain evidence of Agus' involvement in immoral and illicit activities.