By Charles Mafa
On 29 September 2022, Vinod Sadhu who had been on police wanted list since 2018, accompanied by his son Uddit Sadhu, arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on a private jet.
Acting on a tip-off, the police later arrested Sadhu and his son at the immigration headquarters and detained them at Chelston police station in Lusaka.
The allegation against Sadhu is that he fraudulently transferred shares in Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited (SPL) to his name with the help of corrupt government officials in the country’s company registry.
A well-placed police source revealed that the following day after their arrest, a senior member of the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) and political adviser to President Hakainde Hichilema, William Banda, ordered the police to release Sadhu and his son.
The MakanDay Centre for Investigative Journalism’s attempts to get an explanation from government or presidential authorities, and Banda himself at the time, were unsuccessful. No official or politician seemed to know anything about Sadhu’s arrest and release.
Since their escape from police custody, efforts to arrest the duo have been thwarted by legal hitches and international implications.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) took up the case, pressing Sadhu to produce evidence substantiating his claims of rightful ownership of Sun Pharmaceuticals shares, to no avail thus far.
Civil society organisations, including Transparency International Zambia and the Southern African Network Against Corruption (Sanac), joined efforts to spotlight the case’s irregularities and advocate for a swift, transparent resolution. The ongoing saga serves as a cautionary tale of corporate governance, legal accountability, and the challenges of upholding justice in complex cross-border disputes.
The police continued their investigations into the matter and were actively seeking Sadhu’s whereabouts. Following police inquiries, in November 2023, the patent and company registration agency (Pacra) placed a gazette notice requiring Sadhu to provide evidence of the documents that authorised the transfer of shares in Sun Pharmaceuticals into their names. To date, he has failed to respond to the gazette notice.
In October 2023, police held a meeting with the ACC in which they disclosed their intentions to arrest Sadhu and his son Uddit, after finding their location and requested assistance from the ACC.
A well-placed source told MakanDay that the day after this meeting, the police were contacted by the ACC and informed that their intelligence indicated that Sadhu and his son had left the country. Immigration records confirmed that, despite being on the police wanted list, Sadhu and his son had managed to leave the country and returned to India.
It is unclear how Sadhu and his son regained their passports, which the ACC had confiscated. This raises further questions about the anti-graft agency’s credibility in fighting corruption. The agency has recently been embroiled in accusations of corruption, leading to the resignation of director general Thom Shamakamba and the subsequent dissolution of the board by President Hichilema.
Accusations against the Zambia police
After the Sadhus’ escape from Zambia, they launched a campaign against the Zambia police, Commissioner Mubita Nawa, and the Zambian government, claiming that they had been illegally abducted, assaulted, and detained.
Lawyers for Sadhu and his son, wrote to Interpol saying the allegations against Mr. Nawa, a deputy commissioner of police in Zambia, suggest he is “plainly unsuitable” to be its next secretary general.
Mr. Nawa, backed by African Union member states and was one of four people on the shortlist for the role of Interpol Secretary General, later lost the bid.
A letter sent to Interpol by the UK-based law firm Leverets Group on behalf of the Sadhus stated that its clients “have strong grounds to believe that Mr. Nawa played a pivotal role in a conspiracy that led to their unlawful kidnap, detention, assault and attempted extortion” in September 2022, when he was a deputy director in the police criminal investigations department (CID).
The Zambia Police Service rubbished the allegations of attempted extortion made by the two Indian businessmen against Mr. Nawa.
Who is Vinod Sadhu?
Sadhu was appointed managing director of Sun Pharmaceuticals Ltd in 1992. The company had been operating since 1964. In 2001, Sun Pharmaceuticals won a long legal battle against Zambia’s Development Bank, which had claimed that the company had not repaid a loan.
Sun Pharmaceuticals was awarded damages to the tune of almost US$ 12.8-million when the Ndola High Court found that Sun Pharmaceuticals had indeed not only repaid a loan from the agency but it had overpaid. The loan was granted in 1981 by the Development Bank to the company’s previous incarnation, Frank and Hirsch, to establish a factory to manufacture disposable syringes in Lusaka, the capital.
It was after this ruling that the family of the founding shareholder, the late Zambian businessman and politician John Kalenga, discovered that they no longer owned shares in Sun Pharmaceuticals. MakanDay can confirm that all shareholders in the company are members of the Sadhu family.
In 2018 the Kalenga family reported Sadhu, who had left the country, to the police. Despite criminal investigations being opened against him, the ministry of justice continued to pay money into a Swiss bank account under the Sun Pharmaceuticals name.
When President Hakainde Hichilema came into office in 2021 with the promise of a “new deal” government, police sources told MakanDay that they believed that this would bring Sadhu to justice.
The allegation against Sadhu is that during the litigation process he fraudulently transferred shares in Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited to his name with the help of corrupt government officials in Zambia’s company registry.
There is no documentation to show how these shares were transferred to Sadhu and the company record accessible on the PACRA (Patents and Companies Registration Agencies) online portal show that all the three shareholders are Indian nationals. Sadhu is registered as director.
It is estimated that this fraudulent share transfer allowed Sadhu to siphon approximately K 235 million from Sun Pharmaceuticals into his Swiss bank account. This amount was part of the 13 million Swiss Francs (US$ 12.8 million) awarded to Sun Pharmaceuticals in court penalties, which was meant to be paid to the company.
These transfers are currently being contested by Kalenga’s family and are also under police investigation. Allegations against Sadhu include fraud against the company and its shareholders and externalising funds from the court settlement.
Allegations against Sadhu also include falsification of corporate records and receipts held at Pacra, wrongful personal seizure of Sun Pharmaceutical funds and the estate of its co-founder, Kalenga, who died in 1993.
Change of heart
In November 2022, the ministry of justice stated that they could not stop payments into the Swiss bank account due to court judgments in the case of Sun Pharmaceuticals Limited v. Development Bank of Zambia and the Attorney General case number 1995/HN/307/, 2007/HP/329 and SCZ/8/30/2004. However, in August 2022, police, with help from the attorney general’s office and the ACC, managed to block further transfers to Sadhu, with the last payment to him being in June 2022.
A well-placed source at the ministry of justice told MakanDay that, through his lawyers and with the aid of some corrupt officials within the ministry, Sadhu is still attempting to have funds transferred to him through a Standard Chartered account to an Indian-based company he set up.
“They are trying to have the block on the funds lifted despite the police’s conclusion in their docket and special report to the director of public prosecutions that fraud and theft have indeed occurred,” said the source.
MakanDay has further established that the police have completed their investigation, and the docket is now awaiting Sadhu’s arrest so that court proceedings can begin. The police have labeled Sadhu a fugitive from the law.
To fulfill the ministry of justice’s court-ordered obligations to make payments to Sun Pharmaceuticals, the police, ministry of justice, and ministry of finance have agreed to open an escrow account where instalments would be held on behalf of Sun Pharmaceuticals until the criminal matters are resolved. This arrangement ensures compliance with the court order and prevents further externalisation of funds to Sadhu.
Sun Pharmaceuticals
Sun Pharmaceuticals was registered as a private company, limited by shares, on 24 December 1964 under certificate number 2764, according to a June 2022 statement by Pacra to the police that MakanDay has seen.
The statement shows that Sun Pharmaceuticals, formerly known as Frank and Hirsch Limited, has gone through several changes relating to its directors and shareholders, including an increase in share capital.
The statement further shows that the current status of the company is that all shareholders are Indian citizens– including, Sadhu Indira, Sadhu Vodit and Sadhu Namisha. Vinod Sadhu is listed as the director, but without any shares.
Discover more from MAKANDAY
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
