Inside the heated battle for the wealth of Pelikan Signs owner
The daughter of a late business tycoon, accused of altering her father’s will to disinherit her two sisters, has surrendered to court after a warrant was issued for her arrest.
Dinta Devani and her husband Abhay Sing Pathania appeared before Milimani Chief Magistrate Bernard Ochoi to ask him to quash a warrant of arrest issued by Chief Susan Shutubi.
The couple are accused of forging the will of the late businessman Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani, who died in June 2019.
The deceased was the owner of Pelikan Signs Limited, among other companies.
Dinta and her husband were accompanied to court by their lawyer, Danstan Omari, who pleaded with Ochoi to quash the warrant of arrest against them, saying they learnt about the warrant from Nation.Africa.
“Your Honour, I plead with the court to lift the warrant of arrest against the couple because they were not aware of the case filed against them. They learnt about it from Nation.Africa and that is why they turned themselves in. I urge you to release my clients on bail,” Omari pleaded.
The prosecution did not oppose the defence application but urged the court to order the couple to appear before the investigating officer for fingerprinting.
The magistrate released them on cash bail of Sh100,000 each and ordered them to appear in court on Thursday to enter a plea.
On Wednesday, April 24, a director of Pelikan Signs Limited was charged with interfering with the will of the estate of the late multi-billionaire Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani.
Samuel Ngugi Ndinguri was charged before Ms Shitubi with interfering with Devani’s will by transferring the shares of Pelikan Roads Signs Limited without authority.
The magistrate heard that Ndinguri along with Dinta Devani Pathania, Abhay Singh Pathania and Addah Nduta Ndambuki allegedly altered Devani’s will when they were not the administrators of the deceased’s estate.
Ndinguri was also accused of filing an affidavit in a succession matter of the late tycoon’s estate.
Ms Shitubi was told by the prosecutor that the accused and others filed the said affidavit in the inheritance case to defeat justice.
The court heard that Ndinguri, together with three others who did not appear in court, forged the court documents to alter the codicil to Devani’a’s will dated June 5, 2019.
Ndinguri is accused of forging minutes of the company’s board of directors at Pelikan Signs Limited in Nairobi in November 2019, which he claimed were genuine minutes of Pelikan.
All four are accused of conspiring to forge the codicil to the will of Devani, who died in a city hospital.
The accused denied the charges and applied for a bond, which the prosecution did not oppose.
Ms Shitubi released the accused on Sh 3 million bond with a surety of the same amount or alternatively on cash bail of Sh 1 million.