The Fiji Court of Appeal has ruled that a case filed by the state against Sat Narayan Pal, based on evidence from a covert video recording of an alleged bribery deal, was gross abuse of process.

High Court Judges Davendra Pathik, Isikeli Mataitoga, and Jocyln Scutt dismissed the appeal filed by the state after an earlier ruling by the High Court, which ordered a stay on the entire case.

Sat Narayan Pal was charged with 4 counts of official corruption on allegations that Pal, who was a Fair Trading Officer, had corruptly solicited money for himself on three separate occasions in return for ensuring that BlueGas would not be prosecuted for selling underweight gas.

Charges were laid against Pal based on a video recording of a meeting between Pal and Ajay Punja, the CEO of BlueGas where Pal is alleged to be leaning towards soliciting a bribe in return for the favor.

However, the case was stayed permanently by the High Court, not taking into account the admissibility of the video recording, but on the grounds that Punja had acted in bad faith and was an abuse of the process.

While dismissing the appeal, the three judges said that the state should not be party to such an abuse, and the courts should not allow such conduct to be the basis of a prosecution or be part of the criminal justice system.