BY SAM ALFAN.
Businessman Hasmukh R. Shah has lost a bid to stop the Director of Public Prosecution from charging him over allegations of presentation dud cheques to Guardian Bank.
Justice Hillary Chemittei dismissed the application by Shah saying there was no evidence that the DPP had commenced the criminal proceedings against him.
The judge said the only allegations made by the businessman was that police officers had visited his offices and they are likely to be arrested and charged.
“What has been presented before me is an alleged desire by the respondents to arrest the applicants based on some agreement over some post-dated cheques between the interested party and the respondents. The applicants have not demonstrated that they have been arrested leave alone called to be questioned and or record statements,” the judge said.
The judge added that the province of investigation lies solely on the police and the court may not interfere with it unless it is proved that due process was not followed.
Shah and three others filed an application seeking to restrain the DPP from instituting criminal proceedings against them.
They argued that on February 26, 2019, they were offered by the Guardian Bank a cheque purchase banking facility of Sh60 million. The amount was later enhanced on September 8, 2019 by another Sh15 million thus totaling Sh75 million.
According to them, they drew two post-dated cheques of Sh60 million and Sh15 million respectively in favour of the Bank and they continued servicing the loan but when the time was almost due, they requested the bank to convert the same to a long term loan.
The request by them seemed not to have been acceded to and it thereafter advised the bank not to bank the post-dated cheques and by then the outstanding loan was about Sh42 million.
They argued that by stopping the presentation of the cheques, bank officials and officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation camped around their offices with the intention of arresting and charging them.
They then moved to court seeking protection.
