Durban businessman Thoshan Panday will soon know whether he has to spend another night in Westville prison.
|||Durban businessman Thoshan Panday will know on Wednesday whether he has to spend another night incarcerated in Westville prison.
Magistrate Sharon Marks will then hand down her decision in the Durban Regional Court on whether his application for bail has been successful.
Panday and Captain Aswin Narainpershad face charges of conspiracy to commit fraud, incitement to commit fraud and corruption.
They allegedly offered R1 million to police Captain Kevin Stephen to help them generate false invoices worth R15 million for submission to the SA Police Service, from December 2011 to March 2012.
On Tuesday, Panday’s legal representative Joe Wolmarans told Marks the State's assertion that he would interfere with witnesses was based on unproven allegations.
“Preventative detention should never be resorted to on unproven allegations,” said Wolmarans.
He said there had to be “a likelihood” he would reoffend, not “a mere suspicion”.
“The State's allegation that the applicant (Panday) has no respect for the bail system cannot be based on unproven allegations.”
He said bail conditions could be set sufficiently stringently to prevent his client from having contact with police officers.
Wolmarans also questioned the fact that the Hawks were investigating him (Panday), especially since the commercial crimes unit had taken over another case being investigated against him.
At the time of his arrest, Panday was out on bail. He is accused of trying to pay a R2 million bribe to KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Major-General Johan Booysen.
Prosecutor Dorian Paver argued that the State’s case was a strong one and that it was up to Panday to prove that exceptional circumstances entitle him to bail.
He said that while the State did not contend that Panday was a flight risk, Panday “has the means to interfere” with the investigation, and he had a propensity to do so.
“Mr Panday is a person who is not particularly fazed that he has a sword hanging above his head,” said Paver, referring to the fact that Panday had been arrested for committing an offence similar to that for which he was already out on bail.
He said Panday had not proven that he would not commit another criminal offence. – Sapa