A high profile corruption case involving Malawian of Asian Origin, Mr. Abdul Karim Batatawala, is said to be dying a natural death due to failure by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (DPP) and the office of Public Prosecution (DPP) to start prosecuting the suspects.
Batatawala alongside former Department of Immigration Chief Elvis Thodi and Department’s operations Officer Fletcher Nyirenda were arrested by the ACB on two accounts namely: conspiracy to fraud government money amounting to K2.1 billion and laundering money amounting to MK1.5 billion in the famous Immigration ‘Uniform-gate’ scandal.
The business tycoon Batatawala and the co-accused persons granted bail by Blantyre Senior Resident Magistrate Court in Blantyre on December 21, 2021, after spending few hours in police custody.
Since Batawalala was temporary released from the lawful custody by the court, his case has been moving at very slow pace, as he has appeared before the court for trial only once.
A source very close to Batawalala revealed to us that he (Batawalala) has splashed a very substantial amount of money to senior officials handling his case in order to rape the justice system.
For starters, Batatawala was arrested alongside three co-accused of conspiracy to defraud by inflating the market price of 500 lockers procured by the Immigration Department from Africa Commercial Agency under contract number IM/01/85 dated March 22 2010 valued at K2 950 560 per unit price totaling K1 475 280 000.
At the time of the alleged crime d between 2009 and 2012, Nyirenda was head of research and planning while co-accused person Limbani Chawinga was deputy head of research and planning.
