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The Lands court has jailed the owner of the demolished Airgate Mall formerly known as Taj Shopping Mall for 18 months over 4 counts of fraud.
Rameshchandra Govind Gorasia was accused of obtaining land fraudulently.
Before its demolition in September 2018, Airgate mall stood on land with two title deeds.
Mr Gorasia had argued that the charges on the fraudulent acquisition of the parcel of land on which the mall is built, were malicious. He even sought suspension of the charges until a forensic analysis of the title deeds is carried out.
His argument were unsuccessful as the court charged him with more, uttering a false document contrary to section 353 as read with section 349 of the penal code; making a false document contrary to section 347 (a) as read with section 349 of the penal code; forcible detainer contrary to section 91 of the penal code, among other two charges.
“The said property is owned by virtue of a grant issued by the commissioner of lands on April 9, 1996. Unknown to Taj Mall, a company known as Siesta Investments had fraudulently procured a title to the same parcel of land. At no single time or occasion has the LFIU attempted to investigate the officials at the land office. The LFIU has not bothered to take any title documents for forensic analysis,” Mr Gorasia had argued.Loading…
The Taj Mall owner says he bought the 1.9 acre piece of land from its previous owner—Evans Ombogo Matunda—in 1996 for Sh8 million and has attached the sale agreement as evidence.
Mr Gorasia had also accused the DCI and DPP of colluding with certain individuals to defraud Taj Mall Limited and having him charged in a criminal court.
“Instead of investigating how the Lands office issued two titles for the same parcel of land, it was decided that I am the one to be charged with four criminal counts yet at no single time investigations have been done to confirm the genuine or forged title,” Mr Gorasia said.
According to the him, the land was issued with a deed by the Commissioner of lands in April 9, 1996 with No. 63978 and its current deed is L.R No. 20273.
However, Siesta Investments Limited fraudulently procured a title to the same land with No. 141915.
He alleged that his company’s lawyers followed due process to transfer the name of the said land to Taj Mall Limited.