'She has been contacted by phone and received threats,' said a source close to her, without specifying the nature of the threats.

The source told The Straits Times yesterday that Ms G. Jayanti Naidu, 45, will stay out of sight until tomorrow, when she is expected to continue with her testimony.

On Tuesday, she told the Royal Commission of Inquiry that her former boss wrote a judgment in favour of his client in a historic defamation case and the presiding judge used it in delivering his verdict.

Her sensational claim was the most damaging testimony so far against Datuk Lingam, who has been accused of brokering judicial appointments with his high-level political and business connections.

Ms Jayanti told the inquiry that she had worked for Datuk Lingam for 13 months from April 1994.

Some time in November or early December 1994, she and two other secretaries were called in by him to take down 'confidential notes'.

She said she had typed a statement dictated by Datuk Lingam in his office. It involved a defamation case against two journalists by Lingam's client, business tycoon Vincent Tan.

The statement, she said, turned out to be the very judgment made by the presiding judge, Justice Mokhtar Sidin.

'I later discovered that the judgment as written by Datuk V. K. Lingam was fully incorporated as the official judgment of the said judge,' she said.

Tycoon Vincent Tan, who engaged Lingam in the case, won it and was awarded RM10 million (S$4.4 million), which lawyers said was unprecedented in Malaysia's legal history.

Yesterday, Ms Jayanti's lawyer, Mr R.S.N. Rayer, said that she had come under tremendous pressure after her testimony made headlines.

Another lawyer, Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, told the commission that his client, Datuk Lingam's former driver, Mr D. Ramachandran, was also being pressured.

'Perhaps it is sufficient for me to ask the counsel to advise their respective clients or their agents not to have contact with the two witnesses,' he said.

Ms Jayanti testified that she had kept the handwritten corrections to the draft notes and in April 1998 submitted them to lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee.

She said that her former boss had in 1994 owned one million shares in multi-industry Berjaya Group which Tan Sri Tan controls.

Asked if there was any direct communication between Tan Sri Tan and Datuk Lingam, Ms Jayanti said that an intercom linked their two rooms.

reme@sph.com.sg

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM BERNAMA