Africa-Press – Mauritius. Lawyer Rishi Hurdoyal, brother of Public Service Minister Vikram Hurdoyal, tried to intervene for alleged drug trafficker Khalil Ramoly? A letter to this effect has been sent to the Bar Council.
But this case risks going much further. It was not just anyone who made these serious allegations against lawyer Rishi Hurdoyal, but ICAC legal advisor Me Lovendra Nulliah in a letter to the Bar Association on April 13.
He accuses the minister’s brother of having told him “nou dimounn sa, get enn kou ki to kapav fer. To pa pou perdi ar nou. Mo pa ti kone twa ki dan case la, otherwise mo ti pu koz ek twa depi avan”.
Me Hurdoyal, who had nothing to do with the Financial Crimes Division that day – March 8 – appears to have asked the ICAC lawyer to spare Noorhossen (Khalil) Ramoly.
In any case, this is what lawyer Lovendra Nulliah understood, who also speaks of “. . . clear attempt to influence me to use my position as Prosecuting Counsel such that the outcome of the case is favorable to the accused”.
The ICAC lawyer goes further by saying that he noticed Rishi Hurdoyal’s presence in court but not as a lawyer for Khalil Ramoly (or any other client) each time the businessman is tried for money laundering.
Make “manti-manti”? How would Me Nulliah have done if he wanted to please Me Hurdoyal? By pretending to pursue while giving Khalil Ramoly a chance to get away with it? Or by stopping the chase altogether? We don’t know.
Contacted yesterday, Rishi Hurdoyal tells us that he has not yet read the letter. However, according to our information, the Bar Council would have already written to him the day before yesterday.
When we asked Rishi Hurdoyal if we could send him the original letter from Me Lovendra Nulliah to the Bar Council, so that he could give us a statement, he said no thank you and that he will call us back.
But he didn’t as we went to press last night. What is even more serious in this case is that Rishi Hurdoyal wanted to intervene with the Anti-Corruption Commission in favor of an alleged drug trafficker, and not a simple criminal. Which would have been equally serious, of course, but we talk so much about “kas lérin trafikan” these days.
Precisely, what Rishi Hurdoyal would have added in the ear of Lovendra Nulliah, and that in the middle of the court session, still according to the lawyer, is that Hurdoyal would have, speaking of Ramoly, described him as “nou di- munn».
“Dimounn” from whom?
What would have added, still whispering, Rishi Hurdoyal, “to pa pou perdi ar nou”, could it be interpreted as “we, the mafia” or “we, the government” or both? When we know that Rishi Hurdoyal’s brother is a minister and that he himself sat on many boards of public institutions including the SBM (he was even president of the Mauritius Shipping Corporation), are we not entitled to consider all the possibilities?
What Me Nulliah told the police – he also filed a formal complaint on March 16 – is even more troubling. He claims that a key witness against Khalil Ramoly did not identify the latter during the previous hearing on November 24, 2022.
And that with hindsight, he thinks that Hurdoyal’s approach to him may be linked to the forgetting the witness. “Thumb-up” In the same statement to the police, Me Lovendra Nulliah explains in detail how Rishi Hurdoyal managed to speak to him.
“Hurdoyal approached me to speak in my ear and indicated to me that he was referring to Ramoly by making a sign with his eyes and his head towards the latter, while waving his thumb (according to what he understood) towards the same Ramoly who answered him with a blink of his eyes.
We have not been able to read the full statement given to the police and do not know if there are other elements. It is clear that if another person noticed the March 8 maneuver in court, he would likely have understood what Hurdoyal was asking the ICAC lawyer, even if she did not hear the words exchanged.
Me Lovendra Nulliah announced that he reported this “incident” to the magistrate. On the side of the Bar Council, we are informed that it has already opened an investigation into this matter which it considers very serious. As for the police and the ICAC, it is unclear whether they will take this matter as seriously as the Bar Association.
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