Former Mauritius PM Ramgoolam released on bail

Former Mauritius Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam was on Sunday set free on bail after spending two nights in a police cell.

Ramgoolam was arrested on Friday night on three charges of lying, money laundering and conspiracy.

He was arrested in relation to the big financial scandal touching on the British American Investment group (BAI) where over 715 million U.S. dollars was embezzled from clients' accounts.

The former prime minister is accused of having signed documents authorizing the sale of a building owned by Bramer Property Fund which is a subsidiary of BAI.

Police suspect that Ramgoolam conspired with the CEO of BAI group, Dawood Rawat who fled to London, in the operation to defraud Bramer Property Fund shareholders.

The case has raised a lot of political heat after one of the people arrested over the scandal was found dead in a police cell. A medical report said the victim died from suicide, but this has failed to convince his family which is still crying for justice.

Investigations in the matter have been going on since December last year.

A search carried out at Ramgoolam's home led to a discovery of two bags, with one containing over 600,000 U.S. dollars and another containing over 6 million dollars in Mauritian rupee denominations and other foreign currencies.

The source of the money has not yet been explained by the former prime minister. Endi