NPA, Hawks ‘mess up arrests of the Guptas’
‘Delaying tactics’ led to the botch
The fight between the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) over state capture investigations has blown the lid off how the elite unit was forced not to announce a warrant of arrest for Atul Gupta and his brother Rajesh in a bid to lure them back into the country.
Sowetan’s sister publication TimesSelect has learned that warrants of arrest were issued for Atul and Rajesh specifically in relation to the Estina Dairy Project in the Free State, alongside a Chinese businesswoman.
But because of the NPA’s delay in giving the arrests a goahead, the pair had already left for Dubai and India, sources said, and the decoy warrant for Ajay didn’t work.
Meanwhile, the Guptas’ lawyer, Rudi Krause, said he has no warrant of arrest for any of his clients.
“They have not told me anything. I saw the head of the Hawks saying they are negotiating with me.
“They are not negotiating with me. I want the information from them I asked for,” Krause said.
Last week, acting Hawks head Yoliswa Matakata told parliament that the NPA hampered the Gupta-linked Vrede dairy farm case from coming to court by sitting on the docket for months.
She also accused the NPA of delaying other finalised state capture investigations.
A source within the Hawks said the National Director of Public Prosecutions’s inaction on state capture matters was a cause of frustration in his own institution. The Asset Forfeiture Unit decided to act on the Vrede Dairy project without NPA’s head Shaun Abrahams’s approval.
The fight between the criminal justice institutions has led to parliament cracking the whip and announcing that Abrahams and Matakata appear before it on Wednesday.
Parliament’s portfolio committees on justice and police called for a joint urgent meeting to get answers on the Estina Dairy investigation and other state capture cases.
Chairman of the portfolio committee on police Francois Beukman said they want answers from both heads.
The Hawks would not comment on the matter while the NPA confirmed that Abrahams would appear before the portfolio committee and give his side of the story.