Scrutineer’s cheating charges dismissed

THE Waigani Committal Court has dismissed the charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice and making false evidence against the former Hela Governor Francis Potape’s scrutineer at the last national election due to insufficient evidence.
Tape Pulupe, 32, of Wapia village in Tari, Hela, was arrested and charged in 2019 for allegedly fabricating documents to be used as evidence in a previous court proceeding and allegedly tried to stop the course of justice.
Magistrate Paul Puri Nii made the ruling yesterday saying the police had not provided enough evidence to make a serious case against Pulupe on both charges.
“The evidence shows that Pulupe did not in anyway attempt to block, avoid, deprive or overthrow the development of justice as defined in the Criminal Code Act,” he said.
“And for the charge of fabricating false evidence, I did not find any evidence that Pulupe misled the court using false documents.”
Police alleged that during 2017 general election, Pulupe, who was the scrutineer for Potape in the Hela regional seat, had unlawfully signed form 66B to declare the current Hela Governor Philip Undailu as the winner.
Potape, who was the sitting governor and the runner-up in the election filed an election petition against Undialu for errors and oversights among other grounds which went to the Nation Court in 2017.
Pulupe’s signature on the 66B form was one of the grounds that was relied on in the disputed election result.
Pulupe denied that he had signed the form.
Former Hela election manager John Tipa was arrested for alleged forgery and utterance.