Judge Walia’s woes continue

The Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) is believed to have submitted a file involving Court of Appeal (CoA) Judge, Lakhvinder Singh Walia to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for possible prosecution.

In 2021 Tours of Africa launched a complaint against Justice Walia accusing him of conflict of interest. In a letter dated June 4, 2021, Director of Tours of Africa, Again Pachawo wrote:

“I’m writing this to express our discontent, in particular the manner at which the said Justice has conducted himself and his conflict of interest in the matter involving Tours of Africa (Pty) Vs Regent Insurance Botswana Limited."

Pachawo said Justice Walia is a former partner at Armstrongs, a high-profile law firm based in Gaborone and was a former shareholder before he left to join the High Court bench.

It is alleged that the Judge decided the Tours of Africa matter while he was a High Court Judge and also sat as part of the CoA bench when the matter was escalated to the apex court.

This week, sources at the corruption busting agency told Botswana Guardian that Pachawo was informed by the DCEC that the matter is now with the DPP.

He is said to have been informed by the investigators handling the case that the docket has been handed to the DPP for assessment of the evidence who will decide whether to prosecute or not.

In accordance with procedure, the DCEC, after investigations handed the file to the DPP which assessed the evidence to determine if it has a strong case or not.

If there are loopholes or the evidence is insufficient, the DPP will send the file back for further and thorough investigation to build a solid case or the DPP can advise for the matter to be closed if the evidence availed cannot build a solid winnable case.

DCEC Public Relations Manager, Lentswe Motshoganetsi could not confirm or deny this development. He stated in response to a questionnaire that he is forbidden by the Corruption and Economic Crime Act from discussing issues that fall within operations of the DCEC “more specifically names of people who are subjects of investigations.”

Pachawo has however confirmed the development in a brief interview with BG News. "Yes DCEC confirmed that Walia's file is being submitted to DPP this week. The investigator actually called me last week to confirm that.

“That is all I can say to you at this point because the matter is still being handled by the DCEC and would not want to jeopardise their investigations or processes," Pachawo said.

Last week the Judge was also in the news after Infrotrac company launched grievances concerning Judge Walia and CoA Judge President Tebogo Tau with the Office of the Chief Justice.

Infotrac lamented a potential miscarriage of justice in their P110 million case against Debswana.

“Walia J is a former employee and Partner of Armstrong’ Attorneys. Not only is that, but his wife, Theresa Walia, to date is also actively and gainfully employed at Armstrongs Attorneys and also Counsel Carr-Hartley’s personal secretary.

“There is blatant interest that disqualifies Justice Walia J from exercising impartiality over the matter. Walia J benefits from his wife’s gainful employment from the appellant’s Attorney as they share her income as spouses and a household," Infotrac Director Mompoloki Motshidi said in the letter to the CJ.

He continued: “What is further disturbing to note, is that having now gone through all correspondences between Infotrac and Armstrongs, we have realised that the correspondence received from Armstrongs was indeed from Theresa Walia, Walia J’s wife.

“This means she had intimate knowledge of all the correspondences between the two parties and it is most probable that through her secretarial role, she would have been the one typing the letters for Counsel Carr-Hartley’s signature.

“It would be reasonable for any ordinary person to believe that Justice Walia had access to, and was privy to all material relating to this case even before it reached the Court of Appeal. This is gross anomaly that should have been addressed by the Court before assigning Justice Walia in the panel presiding over the matter," Motshidi wrote.