Ex-Education officer loses bid to appeal prison sentence

A former Ministry of Education employee jailed for fraud and money laundering has lost his bid to challenge his seven-year prison sentence after the High Court in Suva ruled that his appeal application was filed out of time.

Rahul Ravikash Kumar appeared before Justice Pita Bulamainaivalu earlier this week seeking an extension of time to appeal his sentence.

However, Justice Bulamainaivalu dismissed the application, ruling that Kumar filed it about eight months after the legal deadline had expired.

Kumar was sentenced on March 14, 2025, after being convicted on 56 counts of money laundering, one count of unauthorised modification of data and one count of obtaining a financial advantage.

The court heard that between April 2017 and June 2020, Kumar illegally accessed the Ministry’s Financial Management System, modified data without authority and obtained $341,981.81.

In his application, Kumar claimed his lawyer in the Magistrates Court had advised him not to appeal despite being aware of the 28-day deadline.

He also told the court that civil forfeiture proceedings and delays in receiving the sentencing decision affected his ability to file the appeal on time.

Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption lawyer Nimisha Shankar argued that the reasons given by Kumar were insufficient to justify the lengthy delay.

Justice Bulamainaivalu said Kumar’s proposed grounds of appeal were weak and had little prospect of success.

The judge also noted that Kumar failed to properly file the grounds in a formal petition of appeal and instead raised them during submissions for the extension application.

The court ultimately dismissed the application.

Kumar now has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Fiji Court of Appeal.

Feedback: rariqi.turner@fijisun.com.fj