South African investigator Cloete Murray, who looked into state corruption, shot dead along with son

Cloete Murray, a 50-year-old South African investigator,appointed to look into state corruption allegations was shot dead along with his son by unknown assailants in Johannesburg city on Saturday.

The incident happened when Murray was driving in the city along with his 28-year-old son Thomas. While Thomas succumbed to his injuries on the spot, Murray was taken to the hospital where he passed away, media reported said citing police officials.

Murray was involved in investigation into a company linked to the Gupta brothers amid allegations that they were seeking political favours for their business.

The South African investigator held a significant position as a liquidator for Bosasa company which was found to be involved in numerous government contract scams. In his position as a liquidator, he looked closely into the affairs of a company and helped with recovering assets or report any criminality linked to it.

According to Zondo Commission, which was set up in January 2018 by former president Jacob Zuma to investigate state corruption allegations and fraud in South Africa's public sector, Bosasa was concluded to have been involved in scams pertaining to the government contracts.

The commission said that the company bribed influential politicians and state officials in order to get government contracts during Zuma's nine-year presidency, from 2009 to 2018.

However, at the time, Zuma refuted all the claims of any foul play.

Bosasa was also a donor to current South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's leadership campaign. As per reports, the company has allegedly received lucrative contracts.

With Bosasa's corruption links, Ramaphosa earlier said he would repay $35,000 (£27,300) donations it got from the company. Ramaphosa, in addition to the Bosasa corruption charges, faces many other accusations.

Murray was also looking into a company linked to the Gupta brothers- Ajay, Rajesh and Atul. The commission's report said that the brothers tried "state-capture" under Zuma's leadership with the aid of political favours. The Gupta brothers who moved from India to South Africa in 1993 enjoyed favours from government and public companies.

As per reports, Rajesh Gupta and Atul Gupta of the Gupta family were arrested last year but it is still not known why the third brother, Ajay, was not arrested.South African is striving to have the arrested Gupta brothers extradited from the UAE.