A FORMER Fiji Government Minister now living in Auckland says he has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman's Office following a raid on his home by the New Zealand Security Intelligence officials.
Aucklander Rajesh Singh was among Fiji Nationals whose homes were last week raided by NZ SIS officials investigating an assassination plot against interim Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.
Singh, who was Sports MInister in the deposed Laisenia Qarase Government, said he was told there was "credible evidence" that exiled Fiji army colonel Tevita Uluilakeba Mara and New Zeland national Anthony Fullman had plotted Bainimarama's killing when the pair were in New Zealand a fortnight ago.
Mara lives in Tonga and escaped Fiji last year ahead of his arrest. He was facing charges of conspiracy to overthrow Bainimarama, who seized power in a coup in 2006.
Singh said the Ombudsman's Office had accepted his complaint and was going to act on it.
"It is such a ridiculous accusation," Singh told the Indian Weekender this week.
"Just plain stupid talk, why would anyone talk like that, doesn't make sense."
Singh, who runs a dairy on Richardson Rd, named a woman who said she was from the SIS and had a warrant to search his place.
He asked for a copy of the warrant but was told it was classified and he could not have it. Three plain clothes police accompanied her.
They took away the computer and cellphone and gave him a blank receipt for it. They said : 'We heard Mara came here' and I said: 'Yes, Mara comes here every time, we have been friends for 40 years'."
Singh said there was no assassination plot and they had never talked about killing Bainimarama.
However, he and other Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement members were calling for a restoration to constitutional democracy.
Officers returned the computer and cell phone later in the day and thanked him for his co-operation.
"They said 'don't talk to the media, don't talk to anybody', because the Fiji regime doesn't know anything,' Singh said.
Speaking from Seoul, South Korea, Bainimarama told Radio Tarana that a plot did not surprise him: "That is the work of cowards."
He said groups like the Coalition for Democracy in Fiji, that operated in Australia and New Zeland and were linked to Mara, were trying to stop Bainimarama's work in Fiji.
Asked whether he knew New Zealand authorities were investigating a plot, he said he did not know.
"I would think the New Zealand government would do something about terrorists in their homeland."
Bainimarama said he hoped New Zealand would send the alleged plotters to Fiji.
Last week, Prime Minister John Key would not comment on the SIS raids.
"This is an operational matter. We have no comment on security and intelligence matters."
Coalition for Democracy in Fiji executive Nik Naidu this week clarified that his organisation was not involved in the SIS investigations involving SIngh.
"The New Zealand media has got it wrong," Naidu said.
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