Former minister of Housing and Lands, Mookesswur Choo-nee, is back in the cabinet after the Director of public prosecutions (DPP) decided last week that no charges had been retained against him. This has led to a minor cabient reshuffle. He has been appointed minister of Local government affairs, Rodrigues and the Outer islands. Anil Baichoo will keep Public infrastructure and Transport.

The new minister was officially sworn in on Friday. Having always denied the accusations of corruption against him, he said he was "very happy and relieved". However, some members of his inner circle believe that he has been trapped. His new ministry is in the limelight at the moment with the commission of enquiry on the Mare Chicose landfill contract. He will thus have to tread in troubled waters and deal with unfamiliar files.

Mookesswur Choonee was provisionally accused of having asked for and received two large sums of money against the promise of State lands leases. He was actually arrested by the Independent Commission agaisnt Corruption (ICAC) on 23rd January 2003 following allegations that he had taken Rs 1.5 million from East Development Co. and Rs 3 million from businessman Hashim Bawamia for a plot of land in Palmar.

Habib Soobhany, a broker, was first arrested in this affair. During his questioning, he made allegations against the former minister of Housing and Lands and his adviser, Jayprakash Durbarry. He stated that they all met at the minister?s office between March and April 2002 to discuss the granting of the lease on the plot of land in Palmar.

According to the broker, the former minister asked surveyor François Ramchurn to bring a map of the region in order to locate the plot of land to be leased to Hashim Bawamia. However, the surveyor said that this area had been declared ?public beach? and could not be leased.

The broker explained that he was very angry with them and had said: ?We have already taken money from Bawamia. What are we going to do now?? But Choonee has always denied the accusations. This is what he declared when the scandal broke: ?I have never been aware of such an affair. I have nothing to do with all this.?

This affair hit the headlines at the time. The investigation was first entrusted to the ICAC for questioning and the former minister was provisionally charged with corruption. The charges were then abandoned as his arrest by the ICAC was declared illegal since the institution could not ?inquiry into offences, which dated before its existence.?

The CID started the enquiry again but concluded there was not enough evidence for trial. After the DPP sent the file back to the CID to make sure that the former minister?s bank accounts and assets had been properly scrutinised, he decided to clear the latter of all provisional charges and issued a nolle prosequi.

As regards Hashim Mahomed Bawamia, he has sued the shareholders of East Holidays Development since he never obtained the plot of land for which he had paid Rs 3 million. According to their initial agreement, Robert Tranquille and Lai Chung Fong should have repaid him with an additional compensation of Rs 1 million.