Copper trader hits back at police
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday June 14, 2016 15:54
Sometime in June 2014, police seized Mehakar Singh’s copper on suspicion that it was illegally procured. The police believe Singh’s company is part of a big syndicate dealing with illegal stripping and trading of copper wires, which is later, sold in South Africa. The seized copper was believed to be from the two largest owners of copper wires in the country, the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL).
The trader, in his latest submissions in the case, said the police were on a witch-hunt because no proof had been provided that the people he named as his sources of the copper were non-existent or dead.
Singh provided Omang and drivers’ licences of the people he claimed to have bought the copper from.
“I bought the copper from different companies and individuals and I have furnished the police with their identities. If they believe those people are non-existent and others dead, they must produce proof especially death certificates,” he wrote.
In his replying affidavit to the police after he made an application to join his company as the first respondent in the legal proceedings, Singh said he had also been able to locate the incorporating documents of the companies that he did the transactions with, which the police had denied existed.
“I hope that the production of the documents now will dispose of allegations of their non-existence and for others I have produced copies of the IDs and drivers’ license.
“I can’t be expected to do more than that. It’s up to the police to produce evidence to prove death as they allege,” he said.
Meanwhile Singh’s application for joinder of his company, Trilanes Enterprises comes after the police in their replying affidavit told him that he could not claim the copper as an individual because it was seized from the company and not him.
The case continues.