KAMPALA – Buganda Road Chief Magistrate, Tuhimbise Valerian has on Wednesday withdrawn criminal summons he had earlier issued against the Aga Khan Prince Karim Al-Husayn Shah, the founder and chairman of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.
Aga Khan, together with Massimo Mohamed Devji, Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director DTB (K) Ltd, Varghese Thambi, Chief Executive Officer DTB (U) Ltd and John Sitakange, Head of Credit DTB (U) Ltd were on Tuesday summoned over theft and other four counts including; making false entries in financial ledgers, electronic fraud, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit a felony.
However, the DTB (U) lawyers K&K Advocates faulted the move and argued that the matters in question are already before the High Court and the Supreme Court and that the summons were issued without full knowledge of the relevant facts.
Withdrawing the summons in a letter dated September 15 2021 to Hamis Kiggundu, the complainant, Tuhimbise said “The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) has pursuant to article 120 (3) (b) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda taken over criminal proceedings on this matter wherein you are the complainant”.
In the letter from the DPP to Hamis Kiggundu, he has been directed to give all reasonable information pertaining the proceedings and furnish all documents in his possession or under his control to the DPP.
The Summons issued by the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court on September 14 2021 come in the wake of the ruling by Court of Appeal on 5th May 2021, quashing an earlier ruling by the High Court that awarded Hamis Kiggundu damages.
DTB had filed an appeal against this ruling arguing that the businessman had on various occasions, borrowed money from DTB Uganda and DTB Kenya and had defaulted on the loan repayments even after frequent reminders to meet his obligations.
Ham appealed the Court of Appeals ruling in the Supreme Court. However, in a shocking twist of events, Ham ran to a magistrates court to report the same case which is before the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is yet to set a date for hearing the case.
