One of these Indians is a former President of the Indian Community. The second one once served as a Minister in one of the monarchies in Uganda, while the third one has a huge presence in the manufacturing of essential household goods. Commenting about the verdict, the trio called it a vindication of their community in Uganda, since Sudhir’s arguably dubious dealings, had been for a long time negatively interpreted by majority of Ugandans, to appear as if all of them are crooks.

“That one was a very nice piece of verdict. The same is good news to many of the rest of us innocent Asians who have been scandalized for so long, by his unbecoming conduct. We are relieved and feel vindicated,” is how these Asians have welcomed the verdict delivered by Justice QC Telling. These men, who have struggled to make clean wealthy on top of abiding by the laws of the host country, warn that should Sudhir and his ilk do not stop engaging in questionable schemes against Ugandans, another `Amin` might take up power in future and end up ejecting all of them out of the country, regardless of their non-involvement into such.

“At that point in time, God forbid, every one of us including those who are innocent, will suffer merely because a few bad apples in the basket would have spoilt all of us `apples`”, one them asserts. These respectable members of the Indian Community in Uganda go ahead and point out some of the dubious dealings which have been engaged in by some of their members, such as claiming properties which the deceitful claimants involved have never, ever at all, owned before the expulsion of the Asian in 1972, land grabbing and encroaching  on wetlands.

“Let this judgement serve as a rude reminder to all our people to avoid engaging in schemes which are criminal in nature, and which negatively impact the Ugandan State,” another one counseled. The trio, in separate interviews, note that whoever Asian was around and witnessed the untold suffering which the members of the community went through following their expulsion by Amin, should think thrice before antagonizing the Ugandan State and her people. This is because such provocation doesn’t sit well with majority of Ugandans and their leaders.

“Let us therefore conduct ourselves lawfully and responsibly, with a high degree of dignity and respect in order to escape the curse of expulsion again,” these exemplary members of the Indian community, counseled. They wound up by advising their own to each and every one of them strictly avoid being attempted by the greed for money and material things, to stupidly rock the boat in which they happen to be sailing together.

The Genesis

Sudhir had sued Bank of Uganda (BoU) in London, questioning the closure of his Crane Bank (CB) and passing the same to Dfcu bank. He had asked for more than UGX800Bn, saying that the Central Bank’s sale of Crane Bank to Dfcu had been tainted by corruption.

Yet Sudhir himself had run down CB by extracting billions of cash from the financial institution. He had owned up to the sleaze and committed in writing, to refund the stolen funds. But he later turned around, as obviously expected of him, to disown the confession.

BoU had sued Sudhir to have him cough up the proceeds of the sleaze plus the billions which the Central Bank had spent to try to recapitalize the bank but which, was again looted and which two crimes, the businessman himself had owned up to, and he himself committed to atone for, only to thereafter, disown such confession, via alleged breach of confidentiality against BoU. He had requested the Central Bank to keep his confession a `top secret`. But trust the mighty Investigator. We burst the story!

All the concerned courts in Uganda had backed Sudhir to get away with the sleaze, arguing that it was illegal for BoU to sue the businessman through the defunct CB, to recover the funds he himself had looted and he himself had committed to pay back. But the London Court has since turned the tables on Sudhir and by extension, the Ugandan Judges. This stance, by refusing to kowtow to the businessman’s schemes of looting the country out of an extra UGX800Bn which, our judges had previously gifted him with another UGX200Bn for may be, properly looting Crane bank to its grave! The Court in London ruled that what Bank of Uganda did by closing Crane Bank and selling it to Dfcu was legit and so, as a foreign court, there was no way they could interfere into the affairs of a sovereign State agency.

Opinion: Courtesy demands that I congratulate city businessman and Federal Republic of Nepal Consul to Uganda, Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia. The tycoon last week pulled off yet another ‘victory’ against Bank of Uganda.

The Supreme Court justices unanimously blocked the already executed process of liquidating Crane Bank Limited (CBL) possibly because it’s dead and rotten. The justices further ruled that the regulator erred to place CBL under receivership against a court order stopping the process.

Following the verdict, I sought out the lately uncommon gentleman, Mr. Common Sense for his views. Fortunately, I got him in the mood of talking. He made quite interesting observations and powerful submissions using simple words and examples. The views are exclusively his and I am a mere messengers of them. Enjoy the voyage.

Mr. Common Sense starts by teaching how he is in very short supply lately, especially in the judicial corridors. He explains that just because he is common and priceless, just like oxygen, people tend to take him for granted and herein lies the big tragedy! He says because people ignore him, it has led to all manner of tribulations the world is facing today. I ask him to expound, but he advises me to be patient, that what he is about to tell me will take care of that.

He starts by telling me in simple terms what the pompous justices meant by the verdict they wrote. He avers that in closing Crane Bank, the Regulator acted just like a Doctor who rightly removes the life support machine from a patient in a comatose state. He goes deep to demonstrate how actually the midwife, in this case Sudhir, killed the baby called Crane Bank Limited (CBL).

You ought to note that he uses the word baby figuratively. He explains the midwife did so by cutting the umbilical cord from the baby. While it is common knowledge babies feed and receive oxygen and blood from the mother via the umbilical code, Common Sense labors again, to remind me of the fact.

Having laid that background for me, he proceeds to confirm to me how the midwife actually killed the baby. “It was simple, though cruel my boy. The midwife removed the umbilical code worth a total of UGX397Bn from the baby. After the fact, CBL lost the lifeline and like the hapless baby it indeed was, there was no way it was going to survive in the circumstances.”

He stresses that whether the Doctors, in this scenario BOU, kept CBL on oxygen in that comatose state or not, none of the two decisions had the slightest like hood of saving it since the midwife had killed it anyway. Away from that, Common Sense demonstrates the magnitude of the recklessness committed by the midwife. “CBL required only an umbilical code worth only UGX25Bn to survive but the midwife deprived it the same. He actually cut more codes worth UGX397Bn, a figure capable of keeping alive a dozen set of babies.”

Common Sense would then wonder why none of the people concerned is showing any interest in the heist the midwife committed! “It is interesting to see the midwife bump fisting and laughing violently while continuing to hold onto the loot  unhindered,” fumes Common Sense, now clearly agitated.

Imputing bad motive on part of the law enforcers, he jokes; “You live in an intriguing world. In my world, I reign absolutely. Bank robbers aren’t given any slightest chance to move freely as if everything they did is fine. I make life very painful for bank robbers. We don’t even celebrate them; lest we alert young people it is all fine,” his words drip with sarcasm.

Common Sense tells me heists of the magnitude committed against CBL, not only end up rocking the bank involved, but also the banking sector as a whole and counting. It has a multiplier effect. The banking sector loses since people lose the motivation to do business with them. The people keeping the cash in holes or tins also lose. They tend to spend it since it is available 24/7. This denies them opportunity to save the funds to engage in income generating activities.

With the people not banking, Common Sense lectures has it, the businesses lose liquidity since they too, ordinarily borrow from banks. The government loses account of contracted savings. The banking sector deprived of enough liquidity cannot obviously remit meaningful taxes to the government, nor can new investors be motivated to invest in a country where saving culture is low. I remind him about the court injunction which stopped the doctors from putting CBL off oxygen and burying the same!

He reminds me too, that the injunction is cynical since the midwife had killed the baby anyway. “Sensible doctors don’t keep going on and on pumping oxygen into corpses,” he maintains emphatically. He admits the midwife walked out of the Supreme Court with billions in costs. But he quickly reminds me the taxpayers are the ones going to pay the dimes. Other than that, Common Sense informs me, since the baby was buried by closing and placing it under receivership, the injunction followed the same to the grave.

What the midwife is left with is the blank Cheque handed to him by the justices, giving him the leeway to cite the doctors for contempt. But also, since the liquidation has been stopped, the midwife can for the time being keep the assets of CBL not yet auctioned for purposes of realizing funds to pay off creditors. He can use the blank Cheque to milk more from the taxpayers.

Common Sense however informs me all isn’t lost since doctors are still in court trying to recover the main umbilical code of UGX397Bn the midwife deprived of baby CBL. Given the fact that the midwife admitted depriving the baby of the same, and in black and white for that matter, Common Sense submit powerfully,  the doctors’ case could turn out to be the huge whale which will finally swallow the midwife.

But he further tells me to tell the taxpayers not to jubilate prematurely. He submits that they instead should go down on their knees in prayer beseeching the Almighty to prevail on the justices not to end up conjuring up procedural excuses to defeat the confession the midwife himself authored. Common Sense signals to me to remain seated for a couple of minutes. He tells me he can’t leave before delivering his own version of judgment in the matter.

Common Sense Verdict:

I will reproduce the verdict verbatim and it goes thus; “I find the midwife guilty of deliberately killing baby CBL for the reasons I have articulated above. I direct as I hereby do that the midwife surrenders the main umbilical code since in our culture, it is jealously guarded.

The midwife must also pay interest applicable, damages for failing in the duty of care, for betraying the baby, for stealing from the baby and for converting things meant for the baby. The midwife is further directed to pay damages for using proxies to steal from CBL, for using proxies to pass off as shareholders of CBL, for influencing CBL staff to engage in crime for his benefit and for denying his confession.

I acquit the doctors forthwith unless held on other charges. They commendably moved in quickly and decently buried CBL. The midwife had killed it yet he wanted to keep the dead body mockingly. For emphasis’ sake, if the doctors had not buried CBL, chances are high it was going to end up emitting a stench that could have surely contaminated the atmosphere in the national coffers.

The Doctor did the right thing in my view since the stench was going to adulterate the oxygen from which the justices too, draw a living. I SO ORDER. But before taking leave of this matter, I have a few words of counsel to volunteer to the Doctor. Never again splash money on comatose like you did in the case. Hesitating taking comatose to their final home is not only disrespectful of the dead but also unnecessarily bleeds the national coffers which is what actually happened.

This kind of indecision further gives the culprits, time to compromise witnesses and anyone else capable of spilling beans, investigators and some judicial officers. It allows culprits a lifeline to sponsor disappearances of key witnesses and accomplices, destroy evidence, break in government offices to steal documents containing fiction shareholders, alter ownership of properties owned by the deceased, rob billions of cash left behind by the deceased, stash away such robbed cash in quick developments and to write off debts due to the deceased taken by the culprits themselves… my host now taps on the table to signal yours truly ‘it’s time up.’ We rise up, exchange pleasantries and part ways.

Since he started the cold war against the mighty Investigator supposedly for publishing the story of how he fraudulently bought Simbamannyo House from Equity Bank, several people have urged us to dig deep into Sudhir’s arrest at the airport 30 years ago. Though some people in their forties have an illusionary memory of the arrest, none knows of the particulars.

Trust money, not even in renowned archives centers in Kampala we could find this record. Even search engines know about only what Sudhir himself want them to know of him. Well, we are here to resurrect the three decade old story which, was first published in the New Vision of Saturday November 9^th 1991 under the headline; “Customs impound forex in Entebbe.”

Reported by Ndyakira Amooti, the story is hereby reproduced with, but light edits: “Forex worth 194 million shillings was intercepted by customs officials at Entebbe Airport last weekend. According to reliable sources in the Ministry of Finance, the forex in personal checks and Bank drafts was contained in a DHL parcel that had been declared as documents.

The parcel was about to be delivered to a waiting Kenya Airways plane. The impounded forex checks and bank drafts amounting to USD81201.50, British Pounds 57101 and Germany DM47500, an equivalent of UGX194M. The Director General of Customers Prof. Samuel Karugire confirmed the seizure of the checks in question and said they were still investigating the matter.

The sources said last Saturday, when the airport customs made an impromptu check of the DHL parcel about to go in the Kenya Airways plane, they discovered the parcel contained various personal checks and bank drafts without authorization documents. The declaration form on the envelope stated that there were documents inside. On the parcel, it was indicated that the sender was Patrick B. of P.O Box 55047, Kampala.  

The DHL parcel in question was being sent to a company in the United Kingdom by the names of Stop-n-Go on the address 199, Arundel Street, Portsmouth. The sources which preferred anonymity, said the impounded DHL parcel contained personal checks sold to Crane Forex Bureau amounting to USD12001, British Pounds 7091 and Germany DM3,000.

Also found were Bank Drafts issued by Barclays Bank in Kampala to various persons and companies. The drafts amounted to USD54500, another amount of British Pound 50000 in bank drafts had been issued by the Standard Chartered Bank in Kampala.

The parcel further contained USD11, 100 in the Bank Drafts issued by Kampala based Nile Bank. There was another DM34500 and USD3500 in checks belonging to a Company that was unidentified. By Thursday evening, no one had turned up at Entebbe Customs to claim the impounded checks.

However, yesterday afternoon, sources from the customs said Patrick Baguma of Club Tropicana 1-Ten had written to the department claiming the intercepted forex. The Reporter went to DHL offices in Kampala twice yesterday for a comment on the matter but was told that a one Apollo Spencer who would make a comment was not in office. This is the second incident in which forex have been intercepted at Entebbe Airport in less than 20 days.

On October 13^th, an Indian, one Rajendra Kumar Raichura, who was an employee of Kobil Limited at the time of the closed Orient Forex Bureau, was intercepted trying to smuggle out of the country, more than USD1M. Raichura and the Directors, Karia Morjaria and Ketan Morjaria have since been deported. The summary order to deport them was castigated by President Museveni”… End

Documents before our crime desk indicate how Sudhir was eventually identified as the prime suspect. Upon this revelation, the now tycoon and honorary Doctor spent some leisure moments in months, at the Luzira based University of Understanding. But trust his courage, he even unsuccessfully tried to bribe his way out of the saga, through then ISO Boss Brig. Jim Muhwezi. But that was a time when bribes were a no-mention… Watch this space…