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‘Respiratory failure' and illness in India — how wanted Gupta brothers have skirted SA enforcement
South Africa has confirmed it is still trying to extradite Gupta brothers Rajesh and Atul and that it is not finished with the UAE in this regard. Daily Maverick, meanwhile, has established they've been in India and issues, including illness, indicate they have wanted to stay put.
Wanted Gupta brothers Rajesh and Atul have probably been in India for at least six months, while South Africa has been devising plans to try to get them back into this country for State Capture crimes.
Daily Maverick has established their recent – possibly current – location through piecing together court documents lodged over several months last year in India, where the brothers are originally from.
The documents show that members of the Gupta family have apparently experienced ill health; this includes Atul, who had swine flu and respiratory issues.
These health matters contributed to the brothers wanting to remain in India following a visit to their ageing mother last year.
'Embezzlement and money laundering'
Aside from their whereabouts, the documents also refer to concerns about a potentially 'fabricated' letter that a captain in the South African Police Service (SAPS) signed and that says Rajesh and Atul do not have criminal records.
It was not clear what exactly the nature of this potential fabrication was – the entire document, the full contents or an aspect of it.
The Gupta brothers have disputed the fabrication issue.
This week, the national office of the SAPS was unable to respond ahead of publication to Daily Maverick questions about this, sent on Monday, 23 June 2025. We will update this story, should they comment.
An Indian court finding from late last year said that based on South Africa's stance, Rajesh and Atul were 'fugitives wanted for prosecution in a case arising in Pretoria, South Africa, relating to certain allegations of embezzlement and money laundering'.
Rajesh and Atul have previously, via court documents submitted in India, countered that they were innocent, and that South Africa was unfairly targeting them – effectively because of a change in government.
Despite their prominence and the accusations that the brothers face – of corrupting South Africa's Zuma-led government – it is unclear if authorities here have officially located them.
If authorities have, they are simply not saying so publicly.
'Busy with extradition processes'
In Parliament last week, Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (Idac) head Andrea Johnson referred to previous attempts to get the UAE, where the Guptas brothers were once based, to extradite them, or explain why it chose not to do so.
'Twelve note[s] verbales later, we still do not have any response from the UAE about why the extradition failed. Safe to say that they have asked us to resubmit…
'We have now, however, taken a decision to submit new applications with additional matters,' Johnson had said.
This week, Daily Maverick asked Idac spokesperson Henry Mamothame if the Gupta brothers' location was known and what it meant if they were not in the UAE, but their extraditions were again requested from there.
He replied: 'The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption… is busy with the extradition process but cannot comment on the questions raised.'
Daily Maverick sent questions about whether the brothers were still in India and if they intended returning to South Africa, to an advocate, Vivek Sood, listed as representing Rajesh and Atul in India.
On Tuesday, 24 June 2025, he said: 'I will not be able to respond… due to client-attorney privileged communication and confidentiality.
'Moreover, I only appeared as a Senior Counsel for a few hearings and am not aware of subsequent events post my appearances in the Delhi High Court.'
Questions via WhatsApp and email to another lawyer also listed as representing the Gupta brothers in India were not responded to.
SA, US, Dubai, Vanuatu
The Guptas have a history with South Africa dating back decades. They arrived in the country in the 1990s and set up shop here.
South Africa's political arena shifted over the following years, and in 2016, when Jacob Zuma was president, it was reported that Gupta family members left South Africa.
This coincided with the year former public protector Thuli Madonsela released a report titled State of Capture.
The report implicated Zuma and the Guptas.
A section says: 'This… relates to an investigation into complaints of alleged improper and unethical conduct by the president and other state functionaries relating to alleged improper relationships and involvement of the Gupta family'.
In 2019, the saga took on another international angle when the US sanctioned individuals, including Rajesh and Atul.
'Due in large part to their generous donations to a political party and their reportedly close relationship with former South African President Jacob Zuma, their business interests expanded,' a US Treasury statement said at the time.
'The family has been implicated in several corrupt schemes in South Africa, allegedly stealing hundreds of millions of dollars through illegal deals with the South African government, obfuscated by a shadowy network of shell companies and associates linked to the family.'
Rajesh and Atul Gupta were arrested in Dubai in the UAE in 2022.
The following year, they managed to avoid being extradited from there to South Africa. (This is what South Africa is still trying to iron out with the UAE.)
And around that time, it emerged that they had Vanuatu citizenship.
Daily Maverick subsequently established that the Gupta brothers wanted to be in India – they turned to the Delhi High Court, which permitted them a two-month stay from around the end of May 2024.
Illness in India
It had been put to the court that their 77-year-old mother 'is a resident of Saharanpur, Uttarakhand, [and] is suffering from various health problems due to old age'.
The brothers had wanted the court 'to suspend the operation' of a Look Out Circular (LOC), which is effectively an alert that India uses to monitor travellers wanted by police.
It was argued on their behalf that the LOC could be 'quashed on grounds of applicants being innocent, [and] witch-hunting by the law enforcement agencies in Pretoria, South Africa, against the applicant and his family members due to change in regime in the said country'.
They were granted the two-month stay in India.
Daily Maverick can now reveal that this was probably extended.
Papers filed at the Delhi High Court dated July 2024 show that Atul wanted to stay in India for another two months.
And a court order from two months later, September 2024, on which both Atul and Rajesh are listed as petitioners, shows that they wanted the LOC suspended for 'a further' four months, which would have been until around January this year.
Lung infection and 'respiratory failure'
It said the grounds on which this was sought was that Rajesh's wife was 'diagnosed with Lumbar Disc Disease, Carpel (sic) Tunnel Syndrome and post viral Myalgia'.
She was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Gurugram.
As for Atul, it said he was 'suffering from severe lung infection and is diagnosed with Viral Fever (H1N1 Positive) with Type 1 Respiratory Failure, Chronic Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis and Type II Diabetes Mellitus'.
Their request to remain in India was granted until October 2024, when another court hearing was set.
During those proceedings in the Delhi High Court, it was found they could remain in India and that if they wanted to leave, they would have to provide at least one week's notice to authorities there.
'Since the medical documents of the concerned persons have been verified, [Rajesh and Atul Gupta] can continue to stay in India, however, if any investigation request is received along with any provisional arrest request, the same shall be given effect to in accordance with law by the concerned agencies,' the October 2024 finding said.
'If any request for extradition is made, the same shall also proceed in accordance with law.'
'Fabricated document' concern
That court finding also touched on the issue of the potentially dodgy document.
'There is also an allegation on behalf of the concerned investigating agency that … a letter issued by the South African Police Service … stating that the Petitioners do not have a criminal record, is a fabricated document,' it said.
'This position is disputed by the Petitioners…
'The Court is of the view that it cannot deal with the said allegation in the present proceedings, since it relates to a certificate issued by the South African Authority, the forgery and fabrication, if any, may be looked into by the appropriate countries' agencies.'
This is what the SAPS was unable to respond to Daily Maverick about before publication.
Meanwhile, other members of the Gupta family have also found themselves at the centre of legal proceedings in India.
Builder's suicide
Last year Ajay Gupta – the brother of Rajesh and Atul – and his brother-in-law Anil Gupta were arrested in a case involving a builder who died by suicide.
The builder was Satinder Singh Sawhney (also spelled Sahni).
Daily Maverick previously reported that court papers in that matter explained the prosecution's case was that Sawhney felt so distressed because of the Guptas that he took his own life.
'[Ajay and Anil Gupta] had made the life of the deceased miserable; they had pressured the deceased so that (he) was left with no other option but to end his life,' the papers said.
The court papers had also referred to Sawhney's suicide note.
A part of that note said: 'In a few days Ajay Gupta created too much pressure on me and my partner…
'Because of his background and his angry behaviour of threatening, we were not able to say anything in front of him as he had a very dangerous past, as he himself told us to check on Google what he has done in South Africa.
'He is a very big fraud. Sir we are too much afraid of both Anil Gupta and Ajay Gupta in this project. Public money is involved. We cannot work with him. I have to prove my innocence, I have not done anything wrong.'
It was not immediately clear what had since happened. DM
