Reshmi Dass, a senior police officer, yesterday testified in court that she was directed to stop all investigations into the University of the South Pacific (USP) case on July 15, 2020, by suspended police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho.
Ms Dass was the fifth prosecution witness, who took the stand in the trial of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Mr Qiliho.
The duo respectively face a count each of attempting to pervert the course of justice and abuse of office.
The Suva Magistrate’s Court was informed the case file into the USP complaint was officially closed by the then director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Mesake Waqa on January 6, 2022.
Before Ms Dass, former chief of intelligence and investigations Biu Matavou testified, and he also outlined details of his involvement in the case.
Magistrate Seini Puamau also disclosed to the court that she had gone to university with Mr Matavou and knew him, thus asking both the prosecution and defence to determine if there were any issues with her presiding over the trial.
There were none.
Who closes a police file?
Mr Matavou, now retired, was the head of investigations and intelligence in 2020.
He told the court he had briefed the then acting police commissioner Rusiate Tudravu before the latter met the National Security Council in September 2020.
He said this was done at around 10am at his office, and the police docket about the case had been returned to the director CID at the time, Serupepeli Neiko.
Mr Matavou added after 12pm, he received a call from Mr Tudravu and they spoke in the iTaukei language, whereby he was informed that Mr Bainimarama had stated he had advised Mr Qiliho to stay away from the investigations.
He said he was disappointed with this call. Mr Matavou said he had called then director Neiko and conveyed the message to him.
During cross-examination, defence counsel Devanesh Sharma asked Mr Matavou what the procedure was to close a police file.
According to the Standing Orders for the Fiji Police Force, Mr Matavou confirmed the final say lay with the CID director.
However, in cases of national interest, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would also give advice.
In this case, the DPP would either advise police to do further investigations or file a nolle prosequi. Once the file was closed, it was kept in archives for about five years.
A letter was also read out in court, where Mr Matavou responded to a query sent from Ilima Finiasi, the general secretary of the USP staff union on August 18, 2020, regarding the status of the investigations.
Mr Finiasi had lodged an official complaint at Totogo Police Station, case number 303/07/19.
Mr Matavou had written back on August 25, 2020, and advised Mr Finiasi that the file was with the director of CID after the DPP had advised further investigation.
In the case of the USP investigations, Mr Matavou also admitted to making a mistake in his earlier statement to police in February this year.
He said he had written a minute to the CID director to advise him of the case closure in 2020.
However, yesterday he admitted he had not done this, but rather, a verbal notice was given to the director at this time.
Testimony of officer Dass
In 2020, the Fiji Police Force’s acting director of economic crime Reshmi Dass was the investigating officer (IO) assigned to the USP case that was handled by the CID.
Manager fraud unit assistant superintendent of police (ASP) Rajesh Kumar handed her the case file on February 15, 2020.
She said on July 15, 2020 at about 10.40am she was contacted by Mr Neiko, who told her the police commissioner wished to speak to the IO on the USP case.
Her account correlated with excerpts from her notebook that were presented in court.
Ms Dass further detailed that in the presence of Mr Neiko, who had called the commissioner on his phone, the call was placed on speaker mode.
She also said she did not know Mr Qiliho personally, and she did not introduce herself as the director CID had already called.
Ms Dass said the commissioner spoke to her about the investigations and stated that the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) had stopped investigations as it was an internal breach.
She also wrote that the instruction came from the PM’s office. She said Qiliho had then instructed her to stop investigations against Winston Thompson and the other senior members of USP, against whom allegations of mismanagement had been levelled.
At that time, she said there were instructions from the DPP for suspects to be brought in for caution interviews.
She said they stopped investigations, and she was instructed to update her notebook and investigation diary as per the exchange.
During cross-examination, Mr Sharma asked the witness why she had detailed in her report “briefed DCID A/SSP Seru about the conversation with COMPOL” when he was in the room with her.
Ms Dass replied that she had spoken with him about what was to be done next.
She also said the notes were kept for her interpretation and were not ordinarily for public consumption.
At this point, Magistrate Puamau intervened and informed the court that these were internal notes that Ms Dass kept for herself.
Ms Dass also said she was the sole investigator on the case, and if she needed any assistance, she would reach out to her superior to ask for additional manpower.
She also told the court that in all the years of her service, it was the first time a police commissioner to ask her directly about a case.
She said the standard procedure ended with her supervisors and the director CID.
During the investigation, Ms Dass said she didn’t speak to any members of the executive council members of USP as a lot of allegations were levelled against them. Ms Dass also confirmed she was aware of the reports that came from BDO Auckland and the investigation by FICAC.
Mr Sharma asked whether she had reported the matter after being allegedly told to stop the investigation, and she answered “no”.
She said she gave a statement on it in February this year. She said investigations resumed under the directive of director CID SSP Loraini Seru in January this year.
Testimony of officer Kumar
State witness manager fraud unit ASP Kumar says the USP case was closed by former director criminal investigations department (CID) Mesake Waqa on January 4, 2022 after he instructed him to do so.
He said the instructions he gave Mr Waqa in a memo, stemmed from instructions given by Mr Matavou in mid2020, that a verbal directive had been received from Mr Qiliho to stop investigations.
He said Mr Matavou had relayed the verbal directive from Mr Qiliho to senior officers during a presentation, but investigations continued.
He said he had initially received a complaint from USP director assurance and compliance Dulari Doris Traill and instructed investigating officer Rashmi Dass to conduct investigations into the case.
However, a statement of the interview between Ms Dass and the complainant that was presented before the court yesterday revealed that the complainant was made by the then general secretary of the USP staff union Ilima Finiasi.
A minute sheet that was also presented before the court said on July 10, 2020, Mr Kumar wrote a memo to director CID Loraini Seru, who was deputy director of economic crime (D/DEC) then, giving her an update on how the case was faring.
Mr Kumar told the court Ms Seru had custody of the investigation files until August 31, 2020.
When questioned by defence lawyer Sharma on whether he saw a written minute on the police docket that verbal instructions had been given by Mr Qiliho from July 15, 2020, to stop the investigations, he said no.
He said he also had not made mention of the verbal directive from Mr Qiliho on the police docket because the directive was not made directly to him.
He said the investigations continued until January 2022 when he wrote a memo to Mr Waqa to close the case.
When asked by Mr Sharma whether he had attempted to contact Mr Qiliho for clarification on whether he had given the verbal directives, Mr Kumar said that it would have become a disciplinary matter if he questioned Mr Qiliho.
- The case has been adjourned to August 2.
