A 53-year-old Indian-origin woman in South Africa was killed allegedly for providing critical information about a multi-million-dollar personal protective equipment (PPE) rip-off during the Covid-19 lockdown in the country last year, prompting the authorities to launch a high-level probe into the incident.

Amnesty International South Africa expressed grave concern, while the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation described it as a professional and well-planned attack.  Babita Deokaran, a Sr officer at the Gauteng provincial Department of Health, was shot many times through her car door on Tuesday after dropping her child off at school in a Johannesburg neighbourhood. She was brought to the hospital, but her injuries caused her death. 

A high-level investigation has been initiated into the killing of Deokaran, who had given critical details regarding a more than USD 20 million fraud into the supply PPE during the Covid-19 lockdown in South Africa last year. The Serious Crime Investigation Unit spokesperson said that Deokaran had been one of the witnesses in the investigation by the unit into corruption in the health department, which was already nearing an end. The SIU in the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is also probing claims by informed sources that Deokaran’s murder is linked to the information she had provided on the fraud allegations.

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