High Court Judge, Justice Daniel Goundar has told FICAC to put their application for variation in bail for the 3 former executives of the Post Fiji Limited charged by with Abuse of Office and Conspiracy to commit.

The former Chairman of the Board, Mahendra Motibahi Patel was charged with two counts of Abuse of Office and two counts of Conspiracy to defraud alongside Peni Mau and Dhirendra Pratap.

The matter was called for mention yesterday where all disclosures were to be served however FICAC Lawyer Sanjeeva Dissanyake made an application asking that the passports for the three accused be surrendered to Court as the trial date was nearing and there was a need to restrict their travel.

However, Lawyer for former Chairman Mahendra Patel, Hamendra Nagin objected to the verbal application by FICAC saying that his client was a renowned businessman and that he had to travel a lot as he had a lot of business interests around the country.

Meanwhile, the Lawyer for Mau, Davinesh Sharma also objected to the application saying that in normal proceedings, an affidavit would be presented in Court as was the normal procedure, adding that there was no history of his client ever breaching the bail conditions set out by the Courts.

Sharma also stressed that the three accused were eager for the trial to go ahead and has asked the High Court to take this into account when deciding on whether to seize their travel documents.

Justice Goundar ordered that FICAC make an application and in the next hearing all three accused should make themselves available as one of the accused Patel was not present in court today.
 
The matter has been adjourned to 29th June 2010 for Pre Trial Conference.

Patel was charged with two counts of Abuse of Office and two counts of Conspiracy to defraud alongside Mau and Pratap where it is alleged that in 2006 he extended the contract of Mau as Managing Director of Post Fiji Limited without the authority of the Board.  

The three are also alleged to have conspired to defraud Post Fiji Limited conspired together to pay a gratuity payment of $24,000 to the said Peni Mau who was not entitled to it.