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'If she were to say that her original statement had been true, she would have been resurrecting her allegation that [Rajendra] Chaudhry had raped and abused her. He had a conflict of interest, re Muskan Balaggan case'

26/4/2016

22 Comments

 
PictureRajendra Chaudhry and Muskan Balaggan
Factual Matrix
"On the 26th January 2011, one Muskan Balaggan (hereinafter referred to as "MB", an Indian national, was arrested at Nadi Airport when she was on route from Melbourne, Australia to India, and was charged with a drug trafficking offence.

She appeared in the Nadi Magistrates Court on 11th February 2011 in answer to the drug charge at which time, RC [Rajendra Chaudhry] appeared for her and offered himself as a surety to fulfil her bail conditions.

It is in evidence that he also offered to accommodate MB in his family home in Suva, and MB in fact moved into the home where RC lived with his wife and young son.


On 13th June 2011, MB attended at CID Headquarters, where she made a complaint against RC, the complaint being that RC had raped her and sexually abused her.

On 4th July 2011, MB swore an affidavit stating that the allegations she made on 13th June 2011 were untrue and that she would withdraw such allegations. MB explained that she made those allegations when she was in an unstable state of mind and was angry that RC had gone on a holiday to Australia with his family while the drug trafficking charge against her was still pending..."

Supreme Court of Fiji explains Conflict of Interest in RAJENDRA CHAUDHRY (Petitioner) and THE CHIEF REGISTRAR (Respondent) while ruling, 22 April 2016: 'It is declared that the judgment of the Independent Legal Services Commission dated 12th September 2012 stands affirmed, and accordingly the sentence imposed on Mr. Rajendra Chaudhry by the said Commission on 5th October 2012 shall stand, and his period of suspension from legal practice will be up to 1st March 2017'

"I have read a draft of the judgment of Marsoof JA. For the reasons which he gives, I agree with the orders he proposes, and I only add a few words of my own out of deference to the Court of Appeal's view on whether Mr. Chaudhry had a conflict of interest when he represented Ms. [Muskan] Balaggan on 15 and 29 September 2011. If Ms. Balaggan had wanted to change her plea from guilty to not guilty on the charge of giving false information to a public servant, she would have had to say one of two things. Either she could have said that her original statement had been true, and that her retraction statement had been false – adding, perhaps, that the reason why she had retracted it had been because she had been pressurised into doing that by Mr. Chaudhry's supporters. Her defence in that event would have been that the information she had originally given had not been false. Or she could have said that her original statement had been false, and that her retraction statement had been true – adding that the reason why she had made her original statement had been because she had been pressurised into doing that by people who had a grudge against Mr. Chaudhry. Her defence in that event would have been that, although the information she had given had been false, she had given it under duress.

The crucial point is that even after Ms. Balaggan had decided to say that her original statement had been false and that her retraction statement had been true, Mr. Chaudhry still had a direct and obvious interest in her maintaining that account, because if she were subsequently to go back on that and say that her original statement had been true, she would have been resurrecting her allegation that Mr. Chaudhry had raped and abused her. It was his interest in her maintaining the account that her original statement had been false and her retraction statement true which gave rise to the conflict of interest, because although his personal interest was in her maintaining that account, his duty to her as her lawyer was not to encourage her to maintain or change her account, but simply to act on whatever her account was. In these circumstances, it is just not possible to say that he did not continue to have a conflict of interest once she had retracted her original statement, which was, on its ultimate analysis, the basis on which the Court of Appeal partially allowed Mr. Chaudhry's appeal.' -
  1. Hon. Brian Keith, JA

Whatever happened to Muskan Balaggan's Statement implicating Aiyaz Khaiyum in the plot to charge Rajendra Chaudhry; it was signed in the presence of the late Sher Bahadur, Commissioner of Oaths & owner of Pet Shop, Flagstaff, Suva, and published by Coupfourpointfive (below)

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Coupfourpointfive: The complex case involving a 21 year old woman who accused lawyer and son of Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, Rajendra Chaudhry, of rape has had an outcome in court today. Muskan Balaggan was charged with one count of giving false information and was sentenced to two years jail by the Suva Magistrates Court this afternoon.

http://www.coupfourandahalf.com/2011/09/rajendra-chaudhry-comforts-woman-who.html
http://www.coupfourandahalf.com/2011/08/more-threads-to-unpick-in-muskan.html

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Read full Supreme Court judgment re Rajendra Chaudhry:
http://www.paclii.org/fj/cases/FJSC/2016/3.html

22 Comments
Dekho
26/4/2016 11:43:39 pm

Is anyone surprised that Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum had a hand in trying to get Rajendra Chaudhry charged for rape and all that?
Aiyaz Khaiyum is a Machiavellian through and through. And that is the sort of thing that is part and parcel of their modus operandi.

Reply
Depressed
26/4/2016 11:44:32 pm

This is amazing revelation. That lawyers, judges, police, CID, and AG can fall to such low levels is unbelievable. Reading all this, my first feeling is that the lady is telling the truth in her signed declaration. Rajendra Chaudhry is an ass. But putting their hatred for him as highest motivation for their action, they breach all laws. So depressing this is. May the guilty ones have only one road - to hell.

Reply
Pita
27/4/2016 12:12:02 am

On the skimpy evidence of a drug mule Rajendra Chaudry, despite his protestations of innocence, was suspended from practising law because on a balance of probabilities the Legal Services Commission found him guilty of a conflict of interest. What a joke. There was insufficient evidence to warrant his suspension.
On the other hand, the AG should have been the one charged for a conflict of interest. The evidence revealed in the lady's affidavit on the role played by the AG in trying to get Rajendra charged and convicted is pretty damning. As the chief legal officer of the land with a responsibility to ensure justice is discharged fairly and evenly the AG allowed his political interest to djctate his actions. He did this in the case of Praveen Bala and also his favouring of a radio and TV station managed by his brother /- clear cases of conflicts of interest that the AG should have been charged with but nothing is being done.
The role played by the Police revealed in the affidavit is reprehensible and makes a mockery of our criminal justice system

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Thinker
27/4/2016 01:46:46 am

Editor, this case has some interesting ingredients. Rajendra did abused this girl from every angle right inside his house and all known to his wife.
Muskan on the other hand is not am angel at all. She changed her statement on Rajendra's short notice that if she continues with her rape statement against him, she will spend whole life in Fiji prison.
Little she knew that she will be a long time guest I'm our prisons even if she changes her statement.

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Jo V
27/4/2016 06:11:07 am

So low for the Attorney General. But i guess gravity will take him nowhere but low. Pity the nation for having such an A-G.

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Socho
27/4/2016 07:19:20 am

The Muskan case provides a snapshot of the perverse state of the rule of law, the justice system and law enforcement in Khaiyum and Bainimarama designed " New Fiji ". It clearly has a putrid stench of corruption about it.

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Samjha
27/4/2016 08:56:09 am

Many rotten people have come and gone from the Fiji politics stage. That includes Chaudhry senior and son Rajendra Chaudhry. But no one has succeeded to single handedly install the institutionalised corrupt system of governance that Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum has installed.
That will be his enduring legacy after he's gone and he will eventually have to go. All rogue rulers eventually go and some very unpleasantly

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Rajend Naidu
27/4/2016 09:59:34 am

Editor,
Lies and Cover Ups
The sister of one of the 96 people crushed to death in the Hillsborough Stadium collapse in 1989 said " Everyone involved in the deliberate lies, corruption and cover ups should hang their heads in shame because they have no idea the pain and hurt they have caused us". ( SBS news 27/4).
The families of the victims want more than an apology . They want all the individuals and organisations involved to be held to account.
They want justice.
We know how they must feel with justice sabotaged for so long.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Reply
Aiyaz LIUMURI
27/4/2016 10:07:31 am

I agree with thinker. Muskan's initial statement appears correct. Then based on her approaching Aiyaz to raise the matter of rape, he listened to the complaint and referred to appropriate authorities to support her.

With that there was nothing wrong in offering her to become crown witness on the drug charges for her own case. This would not be the first time where guilty has received charges dropped for turning crown witness. I can't see where Aiaz went wrong to help a stranded person.

However, thereafter Aiaz did a liumuri on her once she signed the true statement against Rajen Chadry withdrawing the offer to drop the charges. This part has made him a traitor to justice as he misled her to offering to drop charges against her as a crown witness.

Muskan should be released from jail immediately if Aiyaz can show some balls.

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Injustice
27/4/2016 10:15:00 am

I am not surprised that monkey minister can stoop can so low. He has done it in past and will continue doing it. The bitter truth is that he cant do it alone but needs aiding and abetting. In Rajendra Chaudhrys case his aid was aiarse's nephew himself. The then acting chief registrar mohd Saneem who is now supervisor of elections. Both Aiarse and Saneem are failed lawyers and were jealous of Rajendra. Now I am not saying Rajendra Chaudhry is saint. Aiarse targets people and removes them. If he cant do it straight then he frames people and them takes them out and if not then sends FICAC officers or if lawyers then chief registrar. He also uses military officers. These type of people are established for a while but when tyranny rises then this kind of people die first and go straight to hell.

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Jia
27/4/2016 10:50:44 am

Are these police officers 'Men' or pu$@$rs hitting and abusing a girl. She may be a drug dealer, but no woman deserves to be hit by any man, let alone by police. What are AG and PM doing about this? Are they going to charge them or is the law only for others and not for them and their enforcers. What are women's rights and crisis centre doing about this. R they afraid their aid will stop if they take up this case of a women from third world?

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The two biggest bastards in Fiji - Rajen and Aiyaz
27/4/2016 11:27:28 am

The poor woman has been used by powerful people then thrown in jail. It began with the drug dealer who used her as mule. Then it was her misfortune to fall into the hands of two really evil and nasty human beings, Rajen and Aiyaz.

Those who know Rajen will know that he must have tried to to take sexual advantage of her given her vunerbale position. She turns to khaiyum who turns out to be another monster and tries to use her for political purposes. When the poor woman refused to play ball, she is tossed in the slammer for 11 years.

She got caught between between rajen and khaiyum and their political enimosity. Khaiyum really wants to get rajen for all the insults he has been hurling on Facebook and used Fiji's corrupt and compromised judiciary to penalize the women when she retracted.

Rajen and Khaiyum hate each other. We hate them both. They are the two biggest bastards in fiji.

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Dekho
27/4/2016 08:05:29 pm

Spot on! You have said it all. all that needs to be said about these two Scums of Fiji.

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And
27/4/2016 11:33:27 am

As a victim of Fiji's corrupt justice system " Muskan should be released from jail immediately" and Aiyaz should be put in jail in her place for running a corrupt justice system in Fiji.

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Frightened Mouse
27/4/2016 02:01:56 pm

The poor girl in her opening statement says this bastard Rajendra Chaudhry was YELLING AT HER. What a scum - why then put up surety and take this young and vulnerable girl into his home where his bloody wife (no more, for we believe he is now with his secretary with a child) also ended up reporting this girl for theft etc - what a wretched man.

Is it lawful for a lawyer to put up surety for a client and also house the accused? I don't know - maybe it happens in Khaiyum's Fiji?

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Legal Clerk
27/4/2016 02:23:41 pm

How come this man who has been banned from practising in Fiji until 2017 is allowed to open a legal office in Australia and one with a big sign in Auckland, New Zealand.

Is it possible - if so - the law is really an ASS!

So its no deterrent for Fijian lawyers to screw up clients, court and Fiji and when suspended, just re-locate to Australia and New Zealand and start all over again?

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Kaila, YES it looks like
27/4/2016 02:27:36 pm

Rajendra Chaudhry with James Woody and 7 others.
2 hrs · Papakura, New Zealand ·

2016

Immediately required

Three nurses, including one theatre nurse, from Fiji, for immediate employment opportunity in NZ. Interested? Email me for details. Professional placement and visa fees apply.

Ed
27/4/2016 08:33:45 pm

We must see which scum is doing more damage . Now its Aiyaz Khayium RC is just of nuisance value. But damage to Fiji is done on daily basis by Aiyaz. Corruption, racism, religious bigotry, debt, protecting criminals and murderers, you name it. Fiji doesnt deserve such an AG.

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One for Ashwin Raj Human Rights 'champion'
27/4/2016 08:52:48 pm

This is one case for our freshly-appointed human rights commissioner, Dr...er, sorry, Mr Ashwin Raj. What has he done about this blatant abuse of the poor woman's rights? Can he do anything, or is only good for shooting his mouth and talking rubbish? Is he only full of hot air as we have seen so far?

Ashwin is a khaiyum appointee precisely to suppress such cases. He is there to control and manipulate the system on governments behalf. With Ashwin Raj as human rights commissioner no ones human rights is safe. It's the opposite: our rights are more vunerbale with such a compromised and insidious government lackey in charge. A

Ashwin raj is a rubbish MIDA boss and a rubbish human rights commissioner. Victor I hope you keep this issue alive and put the human rights office under the spotlight by taking up this case with them. Our fake and illigitimate human rights commissioner needs to be exposed to the world.

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Goli
27/4/2016 09:34:07 pm

Do not put your faith in Ashwin raj. He is nothing khaiyums left cherry.

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Compare with past commissioners
28/4/2016 03:09:33 am

What about a comparative performance and lack of it is debated for all past Commissioners so we can pin out how incompetent our new commissioner would be!

Rajend Naidu
27/4/2016 09:52:41 pm

Editor,
Moral Courage to do What's Right.
In his letter to The Age 28/4 Denise Stevens says " We could learn integrity and moral and legal courage from PNG now that its Supreme Court recognises the illegality of incarcerating asylum seekers".
I agree. But that kind of learning can only occur when people have an open mind.
Many don't
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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