NPA's first state capture trial starts with a prosecution win - and multiple defence complaints

The National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA's) first state capture trial has started without Atul and Rajesh Gupta in the dock – as the state successfully faced off an attack from the brothers’ co-accused about the provisional admission of disputed evidence against them.

Lead prosecutor Peter Serunye spent much of Monday’s hearing in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein explaining why documents linked to the alleged R24.9 million Nulane scam should be provisionally admitted – pending testimony from witnesses that he says would establish their authenticity.

It is the State’s case that the Free State Department of Agriculture paid R24.9 million to Nulane Investment, a company owned and controlled by former Transnet Board member and Gupta ally Iqbal Sharma, for a fraudulent feasibility study for the Free State’s flagship Mohoma Mobung project – the genesis of the Vrede Dairy Project scam.