The more we hear about the stuff that the Guptas and their associates got up to, the more I wonder how they managed to get away with it for so long.

The latest headline-grabbing story in the Gupta scandal is the ID document that has surfaced, featuring former Sahara Computers chief operations officer Ashu Chawla, sporting, wait for it…sunglasses.

And yes, that is illegal. Which begs the question: how the hell did he get that right?

First, here’s the photographic proof that this actually exists:

Wearing sunglasses in your ID photo is pretty gangsta, although he gets no points for style.

Those look like the R50 knock off sunnies you buy on Long Street, that eventually end up making you go blind.

Baller move or not, the fact that this exists is causing a lot of alarm bells to go off, especially in light of past reports that the Guptas had received special treatment from SA’s Home Affairs.

The Citizen reports:

The leaked Gupta emails revealed that, unlike most people who have to wait for days for their visas to South Africa to be considered, if you’re connected to the Gupta family it can take just hours.

According to the leaked emails, Major Kobese, the director of the foreign office coordination and support branch of the department of home affairs, appears to be a close ally to Chawla.

It’s alleged that on December 7, 2015 at 2.39pm, Chawla copied Kobese on an email to the New Delhi First Secretary (Immigration and Civic Affairs) requesting “Dear Immigration Officer” for help.

“I hope you well. Can you please help me the get one visa by tomorrow which was submitted on Friday [sic],” Chawla wrote.

Back in March, we found out that two of the Gupta brothers, both of whom are South African citizens, would not be forced to return to SA to renew their travel documents due to special treatment from home affairs.

Atul Gupta is below, continuing the trend of crappy sunglasses.

Rapport reported at the time that Atul Gupta currently has three valid South African passports, which is normally not allowed, while Rajesh Gupta has even more – as many as six.

They reported that a valid passport was sent to Dubai three weeks ago and it was picked up by Ajay Gupta’s wife, despite Ajay being a fugitive from South Africa.

Home affairs issued two maximum-size passports to Rajesh on November 3 when calls for the family’s arrest and asset forfeiture were rising fast.

An immigration expert said that the minister of home affairs would need to give permission for a citizen to have more than one passport at a time, but he’d never heard of anyone have more than two passports at once.

Must be nice. I stood in a queue for nine hours to get my new ID. And I had to take my sunglasses off for the picture – oh, the ignominy of it all.

The bottom line here is that everyone has really missed a trick, here. This was a serious opportunity to really define the South African mafia aesthetic. I mean, if you’re so confident that you’re untouchable, that you have your ID photo taken with your shades on, at least pick shades that are going to stand the test of time.

That photo is going to be around a while. Put your best foot forward, Ashu.

Why not take some inspiration from iconic conman movies? You could rock some classic aviators like Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, or some club masters like Freddie Miles in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Nah, Ashu will don cheapies, and for that, we must shun him.

The rest of you can get yourself down to Sunglass Hut and up your shade game.

Be better than the Guptas.

[source:citizen]