KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: The Attorney-General's Chambers is studying the possibility of charging private investigator P. Balasubramaniam with giving a false statement.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said investigations into the private-eye's two statutory declarations had been completed.

"The report has been handed to the Attorney-General's Chambers to consider a charge under the Penal Code for giving a false statement in a statutory declaration," he said in a written reply to questions raised by Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) in Parliament early last week.

Syed Hamid confirmed that police had met with Balasubramaniam in Bangkok, Thailand, on July 7 to record his statement pertaining to his statutory declarations. He said that was the last time police had come in contact with the private investigator.

Syed Hamid stressed, however, that the police had not extended any form of protection to Balasubramaniam and were not aware of his whereabouts.

On July 3, Balasubramaniam issued an explosive statutory declaration allegedly linking Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.

The former Special Branch officer, however, came up with a second statutory declaration barely 24 hours later, stating that his first sworn statement was made under duress and was inaccurate.

He was reported to have fled the country with his wife and three children since then.