Police boss pins tycoon Mukesh on fraud charges

Oct 27, 2019

Mukesh, the executive director of Shumuk Aluminium Industries Limited is facing 13 counts of forgery, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit a felony.

COURT   FRAUD

KAMPALA-A senior police officer, Erisa Sebuwufu has told the court that the documents for the official hand over of Hotel Diplomate in Muyenga to city tycoon Shukla Mukesh were forged.

Testifying before Buganda Road Court Grade One Magistrate Marion Mageni, Sebuwufu said the documents were purported to have been signed by ASP George William Karyegira, the late Pakistan Consul to Uganda Bonny Katatumba and his children.

The witness was testifying in a case in which Mukesh is accused of forging the documents for the handover of the hotel in a bid to evict Katatumba's children from the property. Mukesh and Katatumba family have been battling over ownership of the property since 2012.

Mukesh, the executive director of Shumuk Aluminium Industries Limited is facing 13 counts of forgery, uttering false documents and conspiracy to commit a felony.

The handwriting expert told the court that the questioned documents were taken to the forensic laboratory at Naguru Police headquarters in Kampala, where he examined it.

The Superintendent of Police said he examined the signature, handwriting, typewriting, or other marks whose source or authenticity is in dispute or doubtful.

Sebuwufu discovered that all the signatures in question were not corresponding to the principle of forensic science and hence concluded they were fake and invalid.

"In my opinion, basing on the expertise I followed and used, it is most likely that the author of the sample signatories does not belong to the late Katatumba and neither to any of his family members as alleged," Sebuwufu revealed.

The witness said he examined the signatures on the diplomatic passport of the late Katatumba and those on the alleged passports and found that they differ from the signatures on the document for purported hand over of Hotel Diplomate.

"They differ in skim, shape, initial and end strake, the proportion of the crossing lines on the purported signatures is relatively longer than that on the deceased's diplomatic passport," he said.

In cross-examination, lawyer David Bwambale tasked the witness to explain how he systematically arrived at his conclusion.

In his response, the witness said he used a video spectral comparator that helped him to make a clear view of all the documents and reached a conclusion that Mukesh's documents were forged.

"This instrument is capable of viewing and recording the response of documents or links when exposed to the light of various wavelengths," Sebuwufu explained.

However, the witness told the court that he never verified Mukesh's signatures because it was not part of the exhibits for examination.

The prosecution alleges that the accused and others still at large on or around April 17, 2015, in Kampala district, with intent to defraud or deceive, forged a letter for the official hand over of Hotel Diplomate in Muyenga, a Kampala suburb.

The documents is purported to have been signed by late Katatumba, Anne Grace Katatumba, Angella Katatumba, Rugirwa Katatumba, Ian Katatumba and ASP Karyegira, whereas not.

The prosecution also alleges that Mukesh and others still at large on November 6, 2017, in Makindye Chief Magistrate's Court in Kampala, uttered six false documents as purported official handover letters of Hotel Diplomate.

The case has been adjourned to November 26, 2019, for further hearing. 

 

 

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