Mahtani Flees Zambia After Call From Police
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Tags: Finance Bank, Rajan Mahtani
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The embattled Chairman of Finance Bank Rajan Mahtani has fled Zambia today after learning that the Zambian Police had sent a call out requesting him for questioning with regard to an ongoing investigation.
According to a well placed source close to the police, Mahtani this morning called headquarters to inform them that he “was in hospital” with “heart problems,” and that he would be seeking medical treatment abroad and therefore would not be available for the questioning.
Before the police could respond to the message, Mahtani had already fled the country. The source says Mahtani boarded a business class seat on a South African Airways flight departing from Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka to O.R. Tambo International airport in Johannesburg on 14 May, escaping before a notice from police could be posted to immigration authorities.
Mahtani’s sudden need for medical treatment abroad fits a past pattern. When he was arrested and charged with a series of criminal offences including forgery and money laundering in 2011, the banker similarly ran away from the law. In July of that year he claimed to have suffered a heart attack and flew to South Africa despite being the subject of an ongoing prosecution. Some sources have disputed whether the health issue was authentic or faked to escape accountability.
Sources at the police indicate that there are not yet new criminal charges filed against Mahtani, however the call out for questioning is likely related to the past forgery committed by Mahtani and his lawyer, John Sangwa, of a signature of then-Deputy Governor of the Bank of Zambia Denny Kalyalya. This case had previously been brought before the courts by prosecutors, and the High Court found Mahtani with a case to answer and put him on his defence.
Nevertheless, once President Michael Sata had been elected and appointed Mutembo Nchito as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mahtani’s forgery case was dismissed with a nolle prosequi, which is highly unusually when one has already been found with a case to answer by a sitting judge.
It was later revealed that Mahtani paid Nchito for issuing the nolle in the form of a $4.2 million debt forgiveness – which is one of the key questions being investigated by the special Tribunal formed against Nchito, which is looking into a series of abuses of authority of office committed during his tenure.
The Tribunal is due to sit again on 19 May.
