Defence lawyer Devanesh Sharma and suspended Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho.

No formal communication between police investigators revealed that Sitiveni Qiliho gave a formal directive to stop the investigation into the University of the South Pacific.

This was revealed during the testimony of the prosecution’s sixth witness, Assistant Superintendent of Police Rajesh Kumar, in the trial against former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho.

Bainimarama is charged with a count of attempting to pervert the course of justice, while Qiliho is charged with a count of abuse of office.

Kumar, who was the Manager of Major Fraud Unit with the police, revealed that on July 10, 2020, he submitted the USP docket to the former Deputy Director of Economic Crime, Loraini Seru, noting in the memo that Qiliho had allegedly verbally issued a directive to cease investigation.

Kumar says that Qiliho did not personally give him the orders, but he was briefed by Reshmi Dass, the Acting Director of Economic Crime and the USP’s investigating officer, about this alleged directive.

Defence lawyer Devanesh Sharma questioned Kumar about why he did not call Qiliho to verify this information. Kumar responded and said that it was against disciplinary conduct to question authority.

The court heard that the investigation continued into 2022 despite Qiliho’s alleged verbal directive in 2020.

Day four of trial against former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho.#FBCNews #FijiNews #Fiji #Court pic.twitter.com/s05XhaEgg0

— FBC News Fiji (@FBC_News) July 20, 2023

Upon Sharma’s probing questions, Kumar revealed that he received directives from former Chief of Intelligence, Investigation, and Prosecution, ACP Biu Matavou, to halt investigations before CID Director, Mesake Waqa, closed the investigation on January 6, 2022.

The case has been adjourned to August 2nd.

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