Magistrate blasts State as cops in ‘mute millions’ case freed
DURBAN - A DURBAN Regional Court magistrate has labelled the actions of the State as “abominable” and “appalling” when the police arrested two of their own who were stationed at King Shaka International Airport.
The officers were accused of stealing R6 million from a “money mule”.
Magistrate Sophie Reddy acquitted officers Vignasen “Vicky” Thatiah and Mbuso Eugene Mhlangu of the charges of theft on Thursday. The officers believed they were a thorn in the side of a syndicate with connections to high-ranking officials to smuggle money out of the country.
They had caught a man trying to take R12m out of the country to Dubai just two weeks before their arrest. Thatiah and Mhlangu are now considering a civil case against the state.
In December 2016, “money mule” Mohamed Aboo, 62, of Overport, said he had been transporting three bags containing R6m, owned by Ahmed Vahed, to pay Vahed’s business suppliers in Cape Town.
At the airport, Thatiah and Mhlangu pulled Aboo and his wife aside for questioning. Aboo alleged the officers had stolen the money, and told his wife to buy heavy grocery items to refill the bags.
Vahed was only informed of the theft later in the afternoon when Aboo arrived in Cape Town. Aboo was sent a picture on his cellphone asking whether the officers in the image were the same ones who stopped him.
In testimony, it emerged that Vahed happened to be at the airport at the same time that the passenger in the R12m case was caught, as the passenger was his friend.
The following Friday after questioning Aboo at the airport, Thatiah was arrested and Mhlangu a few days thereafter.
In their defence, the officers said they had not stolen the money but had been targeted after the R12m arrest and had received threatening calls from an unidentified person asking them to stop interfering with operations at the airport, and that the caller was familiar with the top brass of the SAPS at provincial level.
The magistrate had harsh words for the State and their version of events.
“The State’s evidence is fraught with inconsistencies and improbabilities. It’s preposterous that Aboo goes to Cape Town without informing Vahed of the theft,” she said.
Reddy added that the “surreptitious transport of millions on a large and frequent scale” pointed to criminal activity and she lambasted the investigating officer, SM Govender from the provincial task team, for not investigating Vahed’s connection to the R12m and R6m cases.
“The officer acted with unseemly haste in the arrest. He’s an extremely distinguished policeman, yet he copies and pastes a statement; it’s an abomination. Warrant Officer Govender is aware of the arrests at King Shaka International Airport the previous week, yet this officer with such expertise sees no reason to investigate Vahed further,” she said.
Reddy said the use of National Intervention Unit members to arrest Thatiah was an “appalling, wanton abuse of state resources”.
She said there were also grave improbabilities in Thatiah’s and Mhlangu’s versions, but said the “waters were so muddied” it was not possible to tell what happened.
There was no clarity on whether there was R6m in
the suitcases.
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