The Bloemfontein Regional Court has granted Varun Gupta, the nephew of the controversial Gupta brothers, permission to travel to India.

Magistrate Jan Greyvenstein delivered his ruling on Friday morning saying, "I place my trust in you".

Gupta will fly out on Friday. He is expected back in the country no later than May 27.

Gupta is one of the accused in the Estina dairy project case.

He asked the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court to relax the conditions of his bail, particularly the one that specified that he should inform the investigating officer six weeks before he undertakes any international travel.

It is understood that Gupta wants to leave the country to attend a religious ceremony.

Although the judge granted Gupta permission to travel he said he was greatly concerned about whether Gupta would come back to South Africa, adding that his wife and kids were already out of the country.

Gupta was arrested along with Estina director Kamal Vasram, former directors at the Guptas' holding company Oakbay - Ronica Ragavan, Nazeem Howa and Ashu Chawla - and Free State officials Peter Thabethe, Sylvia Dlamini and Takisi Masiteng in February for their roles in the project.



They are all facing charges of fraud, theft, conspiracy to commit fraud and theft, contravening the Public Finance Management Act, contravening the Companies Act and contravening sections of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.

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