India seizes 30 Gupta properties
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Concerns that they are using jet to run away from authorities
THE Guptas are increasingly running out of places to hide and means to fly away from accounting for state capture as the government and its Indian and Canadian counterparts ratchet up the pressure on the family.
Yesterday, the Indian tax authorities attached more than 30 properties of the controversial family, while the South Gauteng High Court ruled that they bring back a jet they bought using a loan from a credit agency owned by the Canadian government.
The court ordered that the Gupta brothers return to South Africa the private jet they purchased with a loan from Export Development Canada (EDC) after the agency applied for its grounding.
The Guptas had secured a $41 million (R494m) loan from the finance institution to buy the jet, which is registered in South Africa.
EDC has expressed concerns that the Guptas could be using the jet to run away from the authorities, following their implication in acts of alleged corruption in the country.
The court ordered that the plane be grounded and kept at Lanseria Airport until the EDC’s bid in the British courts to eventually get the plane is finalised.
One of the lawyers working on the case said the Guptas could spend years before they know if they will ever get back the plane, the whereabouts of which are still unknown .
“This matter can take years before the British courts are able to finalise it. Our application was for the plane to be kept in a place of safety while the matter is not decided,” said the lawyer.
He said the plane’s whereabouts were not known at the time of the ruling because its tracking device had been switched off.
The eldest Gupta brother, Ajay, has been declared a fugitive as he remains on the run despite being wanted by the Hawks in relation to the Free State Vrede Dairy Farm matter, where the Guptas allegedly siphoned off about R220m illegally.
The Guptas, through their lawyers, have slammed the move by the parliamentary inquiry into state capture to call on them to come and testify on allegations against them, calling it political showboating.
The Indian government’s Bank of Baroda, which has been the only one servicing the Guptas, has been granted permission to close its operations in South Africa, leaving the family’s companies without banking services.
The Guptas have accused EDC of rejecting its proposal to pay off the bank for the jet instead of surrendering it to them.
The agency said it could not accept money from the Gupta family as it could be proceeds of crime, given the allegations levelled against them.
They also feared the plane could be seized by the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit, which has frozen accounts and assets of several Gupta-linked companies as it investigated the Vrede Dairy matter.