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Hawks arrest millionaire Durbanite

Businessman Thoshan Panday, who was arrested over the weekend on allegations that he attempted to bribe KwaZulu-Natal Hawks head Johan Booysen, will appear in court in Durban today. Panday – a suspect in a R60 million police accommodation tender probe – was arrested at Joburg’s OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday, on his return from Zambia where he was reportedly doing business. Yesterday, police from Durban drove to Joburg to fetch him for this morning’s court appearance. Accompanied by two policemen, he arrived in the afternoon at Brighton Beach police station, where he was detained last night. Panday said nothing as he was led into the police station and tried to look away when he realised that the media were waiting for him.

His arrest follows a “sting operation” in which supply-chain management policeman Colonel Navin Madhoe allegedly attempted to bribe Booysen to backdate a document – allegedly on Panday’s instructions. If successful, the document would have suggested that the police had accessed Panday’s bank accounts before applying for and receiving search warrants, and it would have tainted all evidence the police had then seized. Madhoe was arrested moments after he put a suitcase containing R1.3m into Booysen’s car. It is alleged that a further R700 000 was to be paid later. Madhoe would also appear in the Durban commercial crime court this morning, when the State is expected to indicate whether it would oppose bail being granted. Last year, The Mercury revealed that after the probe into the alleged scam had been initiated, Panday had paid for a 40-guest birthday party for Brigadier Lucas Ngobeni, husband of provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Mmamonnye Ngobeni.

The party took place at The Dish Restaurant on May 29, 2010. Last week, The Mercury reported on the contents of two documents written by one of the investigating officers in the probe, in which it is alleged that, just four days after it was launched, Ngobeni had ordered in April last year that the probe be discontinued. It was only officially resurrected once investigators appealed directly to national Hawks head General Anwa Dramat. Ngobeni has denied any knowledge of Panday funding her husband’s party. She declined to comment on the further allegations that she had stopped the investigation, saying that the matter was now sub judice.

Source: iol.co.za

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Hawks arrest millionaire Durbanite

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