Gupta brothers arrested in Dubai over South Africa state capture
Two of the Gupta brothers at the center of South Africa’s state capture have been arrested in Dubai.
The duo of Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused in South Africa of profiting from their close links with former president Jacob Zuma and exerting unfair influence.
BBC said extradition talks are taking place between the two countries.
The brothers fled South Africa after a judicial commission began probing their involvement in corruption in 2018.
They are accused of paying financial bribes in order to win lucrative state contracts and influence powerful government appointments.
They however deny the allegations leveled against them.
A statement from Dubai Police said the two men were being held “in connection with money laundering and criminal charges in South Africa”.
The force said it acted after receiving an Interpol “red notice” – a request to law enforcement organisations to provisionally arrest a wanted person pending extradition.
The Gupta family moved from India to South Africa in 1993. They also face accusations of money laundering in India, where tax officials raided properties belonging to them in 2018 in multiple cities, including their company office in capital Delhi.
Many of the most serious corruption allegations levelled against the Indian-born brothers focus on their relationship with Jacob Zuma, who was president of South Africa from 2009 until he was forced to step down amid a storm of corruption allegations nine years later.
