Kamal Vasram. one of the 8 suspects who appeared at the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court in connection with charges of fraud and corruption, in the Vrede (Estina) dairy farm project case. Picture: Matthews Baloyi/ANA/African News Agency
The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) decision to provisionally withdraw charges against the alleged Estina fraudsters is not an uncommon tactic in the event of insufficient information ahead of a court date, according to a legal expert.
This comes after the NPA revealed that they would be provisionally withdrawing the charges of theft, fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, among other charges, levelled against the Gupta family and their business associates.
The NPA’s Free State provincial spokesperson, Phaladi Shuping, said the reasoning behind their withdrawal of the case was that they were unable to finalise the indictment before the November 30 (tomorrow) docket handover deadline.
This was due to “outstanding” information they needed from India and United Arab Emirates regarding mutual legal assistance. The lack of response from both countries meant their investigations could not be finalised in time for their next court date on December 4.
Shuping said: “The information we need is out of our jurisdiction and to get this information is a long process, but we do not want to get it illegally because that would cause problems in the future.
“We want to get it legally by all means. For now the investigation is still ongoing and we will reinstate the case once the investigation is concluded.”
Law expert Andrew Boerner said it was not uncommon for cases like this to be withdrawn, adding it was important that parties stayed on the side of caution and ensured everything was correctly done before pursuing a case.
Three Free State provincial government officials – Peter Thabethe, Sylvia Dlamini, and Takisi Masiteng – as well as a nephew of the Gupta brothers, Varun Gupta, former Oakbay chief executive Nazeem Howa, Estina director Kamal Vasram and former Sahara Computers chief executive Ashu Chawla were facing multiple charges.
The charges were fraud, theft, conspiracy to commit fraud and theft, contravening the Public Finance Management Act, contravening the Companies Act and contravening sections of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
They allegedly defrauded the Estina Dairy Farm in the Free State of R200 million.
The Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court postponed the Estina fraud case and refused to strike it off the roll back in August. According to reports, the state had applied for a postponement.
Magistrate Collen Nekosi criticised the state for delaying finalisation of the case and ordered that by November 30, the state should provide all the accused with a finalised case docket and indictment.
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