Police raid Bank of Baroda in S Africa
THE WHEREABOUTS OF THE GUPTA BROTHERS IS NOT PUBLICLY KNOWN. ONE OF THE BROTHERS, AJAY GUPTA, WAS DECLARED A “FUGITIVE FROM JUSTICE” AFTER LEAVING SOUTH AFRICA FOR DUBAI IN FEBRUARY.
JOHANNESBURG: An elite South Africa police unit raided offices of Bank of Baroda and seized documents as part of an investigation into state corruption under former president Jacob Zuma, a police spokesman said.
Bank of Baroda, which is winding down its operations in South Africa, was thrust into the spotlight two years ago when it started working with the Guptas, a family of Indian-born businessmen who are at the centre of an influence-peddling scandal surrounding Zuma. Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing.
Police raided Bank of Baroda branches in Johannesburg and Durban on Friday and took documents showing bank transactions involving South African state firms, Hangwani Mulaudzi, a spokesman for the police’s elite Hawks unit, said.
“We are of the view that Bank of Baroda was used as a conduit for the transfer of illicit funds. The raids are happening as part of ‘state capture’ investigations,” Mulaudzi said, using a phrase coined to describe alleged influence-peddling under Zuma.
A Bank of Baroda employee in Durban who picked up the telephone confirmed the Hawks had visited the bank’s premises on Friday.
“This search and seizure operation is not for investigation on Bank of Baroda. This requisition by the Hawks is in relation to the continuing ongoing investigation of the Gupta family,” the bank said in a statement on Saturday.
The bank has been cooperating with investigating agencies and has shared relevant documents with them, it said.
An inquiry into allegations surrounding Zuma and the Guptas will begin formal public hearings in August and could take two years or more. Police earlier this year raided the compound of the Guptas in Johannesburg as part of a probe into theft, fraud and money laundering at a statebacked dairy project in the Free State province that was meant to benefit the local community.