By Andrew Irumba
Kampala: City tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia is having the last laugh after the High court of Uganda trashed the case in which Bank of Uganda accused him of allegedly siphoning Shs397Bn from his Crane Bank, before the BoU closed and sold it to dfcu Bank.
The High Court Commercial Division in Kampala on Monday morning ruled against Bank of Uganda (BoU) regarding BoU claims that they were suing on behalf of Crane Bank, to purportedly recover the said Shs397Bn from tycoon Sudhir.
Court also awarded legal costs to Dr. Sudhir and damages at an annual interest rate.
After closing Crane Bank and selling properties owned by Meera Investments Limited to dfcu Bank in 2017, BoU on June 30, 2017, dragged Sudhir and others to the High Court on behalf of Crane Bank, seeking to make him surrender Shs397Bn, which he had allegedly milked from Crane bank with other shareholders before its closure.
However, Sudhir, who refuted the BoU accusations, started by defeating BoU lawyers who he ensured were dropped from the case because of their conflict of interest.
After successfully blocking three sets of Bank of Uganda and dfcu Bank lawyers from a representation in the case, after court indicted them for conflict of interest, Sudhir has also trounced BoU’s accusations of fraudulent transactions and alleged enrichment.
Sudhir, through his lawyers of Kampala Associated Advocates, argued that BoU’s claims of siphoning money from Crane Bank couldn’t be substantiated. He also prayed to court to declare BoU’s closure of Crane Bank and sale to Dfcu bank null, void and illegal.
Lawyer Elison Karuhanga of KAA argued that when dissolving a bank, BoU had three options; naming an administrator for Crane Bank, which in management is called statutory management, receivership or liquidation, which they didn’t do.
However, in his ruling Justice David Wangutusi stated that Crane Bank (in Receivership) has no legal basis to sue and thus BoU’s joint suit with Crane Lack lacks merit.
The judge dismissed the suit over lack of legal basis to sue and ordered BOU to pay costs to the businessman, whom he acquitted of the allegations of siphoning Shs397Bn from Crane bank.
Meera Properties Illegally Sold To Dfcu Bank
Sudhir argued that on January 25, 2017, BoU sold, at an undisclosed sum, assets of Crane Bank to Dfcu bank Limited yet by mid-January 2017, the central bank had approached and urged him to settle the dispute.
On April 19, 2017, Sudhir claims, BoU acknowledged receipt of USD1.1m as payment towards the agreed loans and informed him that his deficit on the first instalment of USD8m was USD6.9m, which they demanded he must pay that very day.
On April 20, 2017, Sudhir said he paid BoU USD6.9m , meaning that he paid a total of USD8m on the same day.
Sudhir thus argued that being accused of siphoning Shs397Bn from crane Bank by BoU was frivolovous, malicious and intended to tarnish his reputation. He also prayed to court to declare the Closure and sale of Crane bank, plus the selling of Meera Assets properties to dfcu illegal, a position the High Court withheld.
