Johannesburg – Gupta associate and former Transnet board member Iqbal Sharma was dealt a blow after the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court on Tuesday denied his bail application.
Sharma was last week arrested alongside Peter Thabethe and Limakatso Moorosi, who are former heads of the department of agriculture in the Free State, and Seipati Dlamini, who was the department’s financial officer.
The four were charged with alleged corruption in a project linked to the Estina Dairy Farm project.
Sharma is accused on the NPA of improperly befitting to the tune of R25 million in a feasibility study in 2011, which was irregularly granted to Nulane Investment 204, a company owned and controlled by him.
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The indictment also lists the Gupta brothers who have fled the country. The ID’s head Hermione Cronje said the modus operandi used in the Estina case appeared to have been replicated in other government departments and projects.
The other three were given bail of R10 000 each. However, the NPA’s Investigating Directorate (ID) opposed Sharma’s bail due to his ties to foreign countries and told the court that Sharma was a flight risk.
The NPA in a statement welcomed the court’s decision.
“The ID told the court that his South African assets account for 10% of his total assets. He has made more than 100 flights to and from the airports in the UAE since 2010. Sharma is a citizen of world and has connections to several foreign countries. He additionally speaks three different international languages: French, Urdu and Hindi,” the statement read in part.
The State has seized assets belonging to Sharma, including his two Sandton houses worth R12 million and R1.3 million. He will be back in court on 5 July 2021.
Paul Edward Holden, a researcher employed by Shadow World Investigations, told the State Capture Inquiry last week that the government spent R49 billion on contracts with the Gupta family. Holden also added that the contracts could be termed as irregular or state capture.
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