Guptas blast Hawks and NPA

Scathing attack launched at NPA

The Guptas have launched a scathing attack on the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA)‚ who they have slammed as “incompetents” hellbent on pursuing a politically motivated “witchhunt” against them.

They remain adamant that they will successfully challenge the seizure of the rehabilitation funds of the Gupta-owned Optimum Coal mine and the Koornfontein Coal mine – and this “will again show the ineptitude of the NPA”.

In a four-page statement issued by their lawyers late yesterday‚ the Guptas slammed both the “incompetent” Asset Forfeiture Unit cases launched against the family and their businesses‚ and challenged authorities to provide proof that a warrant of arrest has actually been issued for Ajay Gupta.

Former minister of police Fikile Mbalula and Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi maintain that this warrant was issued for Ajay‚ but the family lawyers say they are yet to see it.

“Not only have the Gupta companies and the Guptas been attacked by incompetents in the National Prosecuting Authority and the Hawks‚ but it is blandly stated by a minister of state‚ by senior prosecutors and senior police officers that‚ for example‚ Mr Ajay Gupta is a fugitive from justice‚” BDK Attorneys director Rudi Krause has written in a statement to TimesLIVE.

“The reality is that it is said that a warrant of arrest has been issued for Mr Ajay Gupta. We‚ the authorised legal representatives of Mr Ajay Gupta‚ have called for a copy of the so-called warrant‚” Krause said‚ adding that the Hawks had refused to provide this.

The family then turns its sights on Monday’s high-profile raids on their Saxonwold home. “At the time that the much-publicised raid by the Hawks took place at the SaxonThe wold home of the Guptas‚ the brothers‚ Ajay‚ Atul and Rajesh were not at home‚ although other family members were.

“The brothers were overseas on business,” read the statement.

“They look across the world at South Africa and are appalled as to how a democratic state should have fallen into such disrepair that a senior and essential part of the justice system – the NPA – so completely fails in its duty to provide a copy of an arrest warrant to someone whom they publicise as a fugitive from justice...”

The NPA declined to respond to the Guptas’ attack on their cases, while Mulaudzi could not be reached for comment last night.