Guptas slam ‘incompetent’ NPA, Hawks ‘witch-hunt’
THE Guptas have launched a scathing and astonishing attack on the Hawks and the National Prosecuting Authority‚ who they have slammed as “incompetents” hellbent on pursuing a politically motivated witch-hunt 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 last night‚ the Guptas slammed both the “incompetent” Asset Forfeiture Unit cases launched against the family and its businesses‚ and challenged authorities to provide proof that a warrant of arrest had actually been issued for Ajay Gupta.
“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 said in a statement sent 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 turned its sights on Monday’s high-profile raids on the Gupta’s home in Johannesburg.
“At the time that the much-publicised raid by the Hawks took place at the Saxonwold 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. They remain so . . .
“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.
“And at the same time those very incompetents bring an ultimately unsuccessful application to our courts based on a sheer failure to understand commerce‚ banking and the world of business‚” the statement said.
The NPA declined to respond to the attack on its cases. – TimesLIVE