The Gupta fugitives, accused in the R24.9m Nulane case, argue that the SCA has effectively found them guilty of crimes of which they were previously discharged – and say this means they won’t get a fair retrial.

The SCA in June found that Free State High Court (Bloemfontein) Acting Judge Nompumelelo Gusha was so blinded by her perception of state incompetence in the Nulane prosecution that she failed to properly consider the evidence against the accused and wrongly discharged and acquitted them. 

News24 reports that it ordered that all the accused in the case ‘may be retried for the same offences in respect of which they were acquitted by the Free State High Court on 21 April 2023, as if they had not previously been arraigned, tried and acquitted: provided that a different judge shall preside over the trial’.

Gupta associate Ronica Ragavan and the family’s Islandsite Investments company are two accused in the case who are now seeking to challenge that ruling.

They are also aggrieved that the SCA referenced the State Capture Inquiry’s findings in its decision to overturn their summary acquittals – and referred to ‘the infamous Gupta family, who the Zondo Commission of inquiry into State Capture found were involved in the corrupt capture of various government departments and state-owned enterprises in this country, to help themselves to the money and assets of the people of SA’.

News24 reports that Ragavan argues that the inquiry’s findings are ‘merely the findings of a commission of inquiry’.

She says the conclusions reached by then Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo ‘are not binding on a court of law and were not relevant to the facts before this court’.

The Constitutional Court has yet to decide whether to hear the appeals lodged by Ragavan and multiple other Nulane accused.

Full News24 report