The drama that Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala has created around the forgery case involving three Paramount Holdings Limited directors will play out in two courts in Lilongwe today.
In the first case, Paramount Holdings directors are asking the Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court in Lilongwe to dismiss the case for want of prosecution with a supportive sworn affidavit by Chamkakala whose efforts to discontinue the case have raised eye brows.
On the other hand, an indigenous Malawian-owned Luthando Holdings, an interested party in the matter as a Yamaha motorcycles distributor, wants the High Court of Malawi to issue an order stopping hearing of the application.
Further, Luthando Holdings is seeking a judicial review of the DPP’s decision not to prosecute the case after the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament recommended the revival of the matter in court.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Jefferson Luwa, one of the lawyers representing Luthando Holdings, said following the DPP’s failure to prosecute the matter, they were surprised to learn that there was a file in court seeking discharge of the accused persons in the matter.
He said: “We are surprised because there is a recommendation from Parliament that the matter be continued, but the DPP has an affidavit that they are not recommencing the matter.
“We have filed an application for judicial review for the court to review whether the decision by DPP Chamkakala not to prosecute the matter is legal in the face of a recommendation from the Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament.”
Luwa said a discontinuance can only be effectual if the parliamentary committee accepts it because the powers that Section 99 (3) of the Constitution grants to the DPP end with him justifying the decision to the committee within 10 days.
Hearing of the Luthando Holdings application is slated for 2pm today while the Paramount Holdings directors matter will be at 9am.
Details of the case, according to the charge sheet, are that three directors of Paramount Holdings Limited in August 2020 allegedly made a false document showing that their company was an authorised dealer of Yamaha motorcycles in Malaŵi on behalf of Yamaha Motor Company Limited of Japan when the same was not true.
The directors are identified as Prakash Virgi Ghedia, Arvindkumar Atit Patel and Suresh Khimji Jagatiya.
Chamkakala discontinued the case, but the Legal Affairs Committee, then chaired by Peter Dimba who is now Minister of Labour, met the DPP on May 21 2024 and wrote a letter through Clerk of Parliament Fiona Kalemba to have the case revived.
After 13 months of the DPP’s inaction on the matter, Paramount directors on May 30 2025 moved the Chief Resident Magistrate Court in Lilongwe, seeking that the matter be discontinued for want of prosecution, as per Section 77 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code (CP&EC).
Section 77 (a) of the CP&EC states that such discharge shall not operate as a bar to any subsequent proceedings commenced once within six months of the discharge, on account of the same facts.
In his affidavit, Ghedia said that since the court issued an order of discontinuance on April 3 2024, the State has not taken steps to prosecute the matter.
In his affidavit, Chamkakala said that a period in excess of six months has lapsed since the discharge and “the Republic is not recommencing this matter”.
“Wherefore the Republic prays that the court makes the necessary orders in this regard,” added the DPP in the affidavit dated June 4 2025.
Yesterday, Chamkakala did not respond to our queries, but Youth and Society (YAS) executive director Charles Kajoloweka, who has been seeking reasons for the silence on the matter, said there is need for the Malawi Law Society (MLS) to step in to ensure accountability.
The MLS was yet to respond by press time yesterday.
