“Everyone who has played a part in the fraudulent activities is going to pay for it – we are not going easy. That includes dfcu that is fraudulently occupying Meera Properties; they are the biggest fraudsters in this country. They need to understand that they are illegally occupying our branches and they fraudulently transferred them into their names without the consent of Meera Investments.”
These were the words of Ruparelia Group Chairman and founder, Dr Sudhir Ruparelia, immediately after the Commercial Court dismissed a UGX397 billion suit against him his Meera Investments Ltd.
On 30th June 2017 Crane Bank Limited [In Receivership] filed Civil Suit No. 493 of 2017 against the Sudhir and Meera Applicants seeking a payment of US$ 80,000,000, US$ 9,270,172.00, US $ 3,560,000.00, US $ 990,000.00, UGX. 52,083,953,995 as compensation for breach of fiduciary duty.
Crane Bank (in receivership) also sued Meera Investments for 48 freehold land titles comprising its former countrywide branch network that it claimed were illegally transferred from Crane Bank to Meera Investments.
Sudhir, through KAA Advocates applied to court to dismiss the suit saying that Crane Bank (in receivership) has no locus to bring the suit to court, since the Financial Institutions Act (2004) did not permit a receiver to sue or be sued. Sudhir’s lawyers Kampala Associated Advocates also said that on account of being a foreign owned institution, Crane Bank could not own freehold land and therefore couldn’t sue to own, that which it legally cannot own.
No Jurisdiction
In his ruling today, Hon. Justice David Wangutusi concurred with Dr Sudhir’s lawyers and ruled that Crane Bank (in receivership) “did not have jurisdiction to file HCCS No. 493 of 2017.”
“This is a big win over the mafias and the whole conspiracy that’s been holding the country at ransom in the central bank. I think this is going to be a lesson to them. They have taken over 7 banks and they cannot account for any of them. How do you fail to account to someone? I am a shareholder, I lost a lot of money; I put 25 years of my time and you steal my bank? –you steal all my assets, all my paid-up capital, and all my assets just stolen. And you claim that you put this money in Crane Bank and you can’t even account for it, you can’t even account for Shs290 Billion – where is it all gone?”
Diageo to Exit East African Breweries as Asahi Takes ControlHe also said that “the property the Plaintiff/ Respondent was seeking when she filed the suit on 30th June 2017 had earlier been given away by the Receiver to dfcu Bank on the 24th of January 2017 four days into Receivership and five months before the filing of this suit thus leaving the Plaintiff/ Respondent with no property.”
“Furthermore, it’s my finding that the orders sought against the 2nd Applicant (Meera) are barred in law rendering the Plaintiff/ Respondent (Crane Bank) with no cause of action against the 2nd Applicant (Meera). For those reasons this application succeeds and the suit is dismissed. The respondent shall bear the costs of the application and the suit,” he ruled.
Big win over the mafias
Addressing a media conference outside the Commercial Court, a tough-talking Sudhir said: “Everyone is going to pay the price for this,” he said, adding: “We are now going to put up a counter claim. You know COSASE found out a lot of things of what these people did. With guidance from my lawyers, we will put a counter claim. They did not value our assets, they did not account for the cash in the bank; all the money was just stolen. This is terrible,” Sudhir said.
“This is a big win over the mafias and the whole conspiracy that’s been holding the country at ransom in the central bank. I think this is going to be a lesson to them. They have taken over 7 banks and they cannot account for any of them. How do you fail to account to someone? I am a shareholder, I lost a lot of money; I put 25 years of my time and you steal my bank? –you steal all my assets, all my paid-up capital, and all my assets just stolen. And you claim that you put this money in Crane Bank and you can’t even account for it, you can’t even account for Shs290 Billion – where is it all gone?” quizzed Sudhir.
Sudhir also said this was a “tremendous achievement” and “historical.
“Nobody has been in the past been able to win Central Bank – they have stolen 7 different banks and not accounted to any shareholder and this is the unfortunate part of the whole scenario. You take somebody’s assets, you steal it, you profit from it and you don’t account for it; this is so ridiculous! Then, they sued for $100 Million; the money they stole, they are suing me for it. How?” he wondered.
