Company files application to resume business operations

AN urgent application filed in court by a company seeking an order to continue its operations in Port Moresby will be heard on Wednesday.
GTR Trading which operates a club, and a horse-racing and betting business, was shut down 14 days ago by the police and the Immigration and Citizenship Authority (ICA) which had been clamping down on suspected illegal activities.
Deputy Chief Justice Ambeng Kandakasi last Friday postponed the case to Wednesday saying he wanted to see a report from Police Commissioner David Manning.
“When there is an allegation of crime being committed, and the police act on that, the civil court has no jurisdiction to deal with what effectively is the obligation to intervene or interfere into the investigations or prosecutions,” he said.
He said “not all the evidence is before this court, (which) should be slow to interfere or intervene in criminal investigations because criminal investigations take time”.
“I don’t feel it right for the court to intervene or make any orders until we ascertain from Commissioner Manning the status of the investigations,” he said.
The company alleges that on Aug 7, the police and the ICA inspected its business premises and properties, and arrested 30 employees.
Justice Kandakasi said the company had raised issues which the court needed to address.