SAPS says it is still waiting for the paperwork needed to have Rajesh and Atul Gupta arrested in India.
Rajesh and Atul Gupta are still the subject of an Interpol red notice issued more than four years ago.
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia confirmed this in a written reply to Parliament.
He said the notice was issued on 28 February 2022. The brothers are believed to be living in India. But the reply shows that the process to bring them back has not moved far.
Cachalia said Interpol’s National Central Bureau in Pretoria “awaits the finalisation of the provisional request for arrest and the formal request for extradition”.
He said these form part of broader international legal cooperation and extradition processes.
“As these processes are ongoing and are conducted in cooperation with the relevant foreign authorities, further detail cannot be disclosed at this stage,” the reply reads.
DA MP Glynnis Breytenbach asked the question. She wanted to know whether any member of the family implicated in the State Capture Commission report was the subject of a red notice or other international arrest request.
The reply names only Rajesh and Atul. Ajay Gupta is not listed.
The brothers were arrested in Dubai in June 2022 after the red notice was circulated. South Africa submitted a formal extradition request to the United Arab Emirates the following month. In April 2023, then justice minister Ronald Lamola announced that a UAE court had rejected the request.
At the time, then National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi said the red notice had lapsed once the UAE warrants were executed. She said new red notices would have to be applied for.
In January 2026, Batohi said the NPA would submit another extradition application. This month, her successor Andy Mothibi said the NPA was working with authorities in the UAE and India through mutual legal assistance processes.
The brothers are wanted in connection with the R24.9 million Nulane Investment fraud and money-laundering case. The case involves a feasibility study for the Free State agriculture department.
The NPA’s Investigating Directorate Against Corruption re-enrolled the case in the Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court in June. That followed a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that reinstated the matter.
In July, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi ordered a probe after South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Anil Sooklal, appeared at an event with former president Jacob Zuma and Ajay Gupta.
