Committal court process abused, says magistrate

A SENIOR magistrate at the Lae Committal Court says court process has been abused after noting that some cases that are civil in nature are being filed as criminal cases.
Magistrate Pious Tapil said evidence provided on file in court for those cases amounted to civil proceedings as well.
“Some of those evidences are civil in nature but the case is registered as criminal,” he said.
“This is total abuse of court process.”
Magistrate Tapil exposed this yesterday after striking out a cheating case against Liam Nalu, 26, from Yanga village, Lae, Morobe, on the grounds that the court process was abused and lacking evidence provided in court.
The court noted that evidence provided in the police report and presented in court did not amount to fraud but was civil in nature.
Magistrate Tapil ordered that Nalu be discharged, information relating to his case be struck out and his bail money refunded forthwith.
Police statement in court alleged that Nalu, between Jan 1, 2018 and Dec 30, 2019 in Port Moresby, fraudulently obtained cash totalling K61,000 from Jackson Savi.
The court was told that in 2017 in Port Moresby, Nalu met Savi and they had a verbal agreement which showed that Nalu would sell his late father’s land for K100,000.
Police told the court that in 2018, Nalu started asking for money from Savi on numerous occasions and was receiving pay instalments which he (Nalu) said would be deducted from the K100,000.
The court heard that between Jan 1, 2018 and Dec 30, 2019, the accumulated amount taken allegedly by Nalu went up to K61,000.