Former USP HR Interim Director Fronts Court

Former University of the South Pacific’s (USP) Human Resource interim director Dharij Bhartu appeared in Court yesterday in the hopes of having his bail application heard.

Magistrate Seini Puamau, who heard the case at the Magistrate Court in Suva, moved the hearing to next Wednesday, October 11 as the State needed more time to complete its affidavit disclosure.

Mr Bhartu, who is charged with one count of abuse of office, is applying for bail to travel to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) for work.

State prosecutor, Nimisha Shankar was questioned about the need for more time to compile the disclosure.

Ms Shankar responded that they had received the bail application from the defence lawyers at a later time.

Magistrate Puamau said the latter was not an excuse and the State should do better.

She told Ms Shankar that the consequences of requesting more time would hold the court proceedings, requiring more workload.

She said such actions were a breach of the court system and that this was a failure on her part as a prosecutor.

Ms Shankar refuted the comments made by Magistrate Puamau and said such wouldn’t have been an ordeal had they were provided with the items on time.

Ms Shankar’s request to finalise its compilations by Friday was then agreed upon.

Defence lawyer Siddharth Nandan has agreed upon the date set by the Court.

Mr Nandan said his client’s plea for bail could not be heard until they completed their task.

Charges 

In 2020, Bhartu along with USP former vice chancellor, Rajesh Chandra and former pro-chancellor Winston Thompson, were charged with an account of abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud.

It was alleged that during his term in office, Mr Bhartu fraudulently awarded two cash bonuses amounting to $4517 to the USP director for development, marketing, communications and alumni.

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