Last Update: January 24, 2023, at 6:09 pm
Atul (in pic) and Rajesh are currently awaiting extradition to South Africa to face charges. (Image: Twitter)
Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta are accused of embezzling billions of rands from South African parastatals through their close ties to former President Jacob Zuma.
Atul Gupta, one of three Indian-origin brothers living in self-exile in Dubai, has failed to obtain a new passport from the South African government after a Pretoria court ruled he was not eligible for one because he was a Was a fugitive. justice.
Atul, Ajay and Rajesh Gupta are accused of siphoning off billions of rands from South African parastatals through their close ties to former President Jacob Zuma.
Atul and Rajesh are currently awaiting extradition to South Africa to face charges.
The brothers and their families fled to Dubai in 2018 after Zuma was ousted from his presidency by the ruling African National Congress. He has also been blacklisted by the US and the UK.
The Pretoria High Court ruled on Friday that Atul Gupta was not eligible for a South African passport because he was a fugitive from justice.
Gupta had approached the South African Consulate in Dubai in 2018 for a new passport. This was before he faced extradition charges.
But the Home Affairs Department rejected Gupta’s application after the National Prosecuting Authority confirmed that it had issued a warrant of arrest against him for fraud and money laundering offenses related to a dairy project in Free State province, which was supposed to benefit the budding black farmers.
The project got shelved despite the arrival of experts from Paras Dairy India Being brought in to manage the project, millions of rand from the project have allegedly been diverted to companies owned by Rand Gupta.
Despite the absence of the Gupta brothers, the trial of Gupta’s aides Iqbal Mir Sharma, Ronika Raghavan and Dinesh Patel, as well as three senior former Free State government officials, was underway in the Free State High Court on Monday.
Gupta challenged the denial of High Court action in February 2021, claiming that as a South African citizen, the country’s constitution entitled him to a passport. Gupta, originally part of a family living in Saharanpur, India, was a naturalized South African citizen at the time.
Significantly, Judge Mansedisi Khumalo noted that Gupta had not given any specific address in Dubai.
“All he (Gupta) is ready to state is that he is a South African citizen living in Dubai. Nothing further has been disclosed. I am of the view that this was not a lapse on the part of the applicant but it was deliberate,” the judgment said.
The court declared that Gupta was a fugitive from justice and had no right or capacity to proceed in court. It also ordered Gupta to pay the cost of the application.
Interior Minister Aaron Motualedi welcomed the decision.
“Friday’s decision shows that you do not want to avoid accountability in a country and enjoy the use of documents that are specifically designed for law-abiding citizens of that country,” Motsoaledi said in a statement. reserved for.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)