Sattar bribery case: 2 more to be arrested

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has disclosed that after the arrest of Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Kezzie Msukwa on Friday, it will arrest two more people then start prosecuting the case.

The imminent arrests are in relation to land deals linked to businessperson Zuneth Sattar and his business partner Ashok Nair.

ACB chief legal and prosecutions officer Victor Chiwala revealed this in court on Friday, when Nair was brought to court where he was formally charged and denied bail for being “a flight risk”.

Nair will be remanded at Maula Prison in Lilongwe for the rest of the trial period “unless circumstances change”, according to chief resident magistrate Patrick Chirwa who presided over the proceedings on Friday.

Chiwala did not disclose the identities of the remaining suspects but indicated that ACB will arrest them soon.

He said: “There are four accused persons to be arrested for this case and we are yet to arrest the others. The suspect [Nair] is from India and has no permanent place of abode, even his wife is in India with no family ties. He is a flight risk and, therefore, it will be in the interest of justice to remand him for now.”

Sattar and Nair are alleged to have been giving bribes to politically exposed persons with the aim of influencing public officers to corruptly award contracts to companies belonging to Sattar.

Particulars of the offence show that Nair in or around August 2021 corruptly gave Msukwa K4 million to pay duty to the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) for a Mercedes Benz C-Class which Sattar bought for the minister.

Nair’s lawyers Wapona Kita and Gilbert Khonyongwa argued in their defence to have him released on bail, but the court agreed with the State that the suspect was “a flight risk”.

On Friday , ACB officials waited in vain the whole morning for Msukwa who had promised to avail himself at ACB head offices in Lilongwe following an arrest warrant issued on him on December 29 2021, but he later claimed he was unwell and was seeking medical treatment at a hospital.

He was finally arrested in the afternoon at Partners in Hope Hospital in the city of Lilongwe.

In a statement, ACB spokesperson Egrita Ndala said Msukwa was still at the hospital as of last evening, but under arrest.

Msukwa, who is also member of Parliament for Chitipa East affiliated to the Malawi Congress Party, is suspected to have committed three counts of corrupt use of official power in relation to allocation of plots to Sattar, according to the particulars of the warrant.

Reads the ACB statement:  “During such investigations, the bureau also established that Zuneth Sattar, through his agent Ashok Kumar Sreedharan, aka Ashok Nair, engaged in some corrupt practices in some land-related matters in Area 46, Lilongwe District and Chipoka in Salima District.

“The investigations have so far established that in relation to the mentioned land matters, Hon Kezzie Msukwa on four occasions corruptly used his official powers contrary to Section 25 (1) as read together with Section 34 of the Corrupt Practices Act.

“The investigations further established that Mr Sattar’s agent Ashok Kumar Sreedharan, aka Ashok Nair, aided in procuring corrupt use of official powers contrary to Section 35 as read together with Section 25 (2) and Section 34 of the Corrupt Practices Act.”

Nair was arrested on Thursday morning and taken to the bureau’s headquarters in Mulanje House at City Centre in Lilongwe for a caution statement.

Sattar, who is currently based in the United Kingdom, is also facing an investigation by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), on allegations of corruption in his dealings with the Government of Malawi.

Two weeks ago, the ACB restricted the Ministry of Lands from dealing with some properties connected to Sattar. It said 86 plots in the capital city were linked to him.

Msukwa has become the second member of President Lazarus Chakwera’s Cabinet to be arrested in connection with alleged corruption, after former minister of Energy Newton Kambala was arrested in August last year for alleged involvement in fraud and corruption activities.

In November last year, Sattar and Nair sought the courts’ intervention to gag Nation Publications Limited and Times Group from following up stories on the investigations. In a separate application, the two also wanted the court to order the ACB to stop cooperating with NCA in investigations.

But the High Court of Malawi dismissed both applications for lacking merit.