Deported Indian businessman Chandra Shekhar More offered a K60 million bribe to a human rights activist as the Indian national seeks to secure his return to Malawi.
More invested in a company in Malawi but was deported in 2017 for using racial slurs against Malawian police officers and a magistrate, evading taxes amounting to K20 million, money laundering and conducting business despite having no work permit.
This week he attempted to secure his return through Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda.
More asked Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) member Mayaya to talk to Chimwendo so that the minister should change More’s status.
More offered K60 million saying Mayaya and Chimwendo would get K30 million each. But Mayaya reported the bribery attempt to the Anti-Corruption Bureau
“I received a WhatsApp message from Chandra Shekhar More requesting me to assist him by calling the Minister of Homeland Security Honourable Richard Chimwendo Banda, who is in charge of immigration, to issue an order to reverse More’s prohibited immigration status.
“From the message, I suspected foul play and had alarm bells ringing. Therefore, I, on my own accord, decided to record any further conversations I had with him.
“In the next conversation, he called me, where I then pretended to be with the minister although I was on my own. He was brazen enough to offer a payment of K60 million for his reversal of prohibitive immigration status,” said Mayaya in his letter to the ACB.
On his part, Chimwendo Banda commended Mayaya for reporting the matter to ACB.
According to Chimwendo, he has never talked with More or Mayaya about the busineperson’s deportation. The minister then advised More to contest his deportation in court if he wants to return to Malawi.
Meanwhile, ACB director general Reyneck Matemba has said the bureau will investigate the matter.
