ICAC Operation Rosny LIVE updates: Former Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran returns for likely final day of public hearings

by · WAtoday

7.51am

Hearing opens with questions about surveillance

By Jessica McSweeney

We’ve begun today’s public hearing with questions from Peggy Dwyer, SC, about surveillance that Sharangan Maheswaran ordered on Strathfield councillors.

There was a round of surveillance in 2021 on former mayor Antoine Doueihi and another councillor, then another round of surveillance in 2022 on then independent mayor Matthew Blackmore.

Sharangan Maheswaran is now in his sixth day of evidence.

In May 2022, Maheswaran paid a private investigator to sit at a cafe frequented by Blackmore, making notes of who joined him and taking photographs.

Towards the end of 2022 that surveillance ramped up. Fellow Labor councillor Karen Pensabene texted Maheswaran alerting him that Blackmore was going to be meeting with some other councillors at a cafe, and she wanted to know if Sharangan knew someone who could “tape” the meeting.