Court issues warrant of arrest against Devani

By Evelyn Kwamboka

The Anti-Corruption Magistrate’s Court in Nairobi has issued a warrant of arrest against businessman Yagnesh Devani.

It was issued on Wednesday following a successful application by the prosecution, after Devani failed to appear in court to take a plea in connection with the more than Sh7.6 billion oil saga.

This was after some senior officers at KPC and Triton pleaded not guilty to 13 counts before Chief Magistrate Rose Ougo, who released them on a bond of Sh3 million with one surety or a cash bail of Sh1.5 million.

The warrant was issued barely 24 hours after the Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko withdrew a case for which a warrant had been issued earlier.

The court issued it based on an affidavit filed by Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission’s Investigating Officer, who interrogated Devani at the Kenyan embassy in India, in May.

Met in india

The officer, Mr David Kangara, said he met Devani on May 4 and 5.

"He was willing to come back to Kenya in the subsistence of a warrant of arrest against him by the Chief Magistrate’s Court in a criminal suit related to the same fraudulent transactions of oil products financed by the Kenya Commercial Bank of Kenya," Kangara said.

He said KACC received a complaint from the Minister for Energy Kiraitu Murungi on January 8, seeking investigation into KPC officials’ irregular release of petroleum products to Devani.

However, the court declined to issue summons against the Triton Petroleum Company’s receiver manager because he was not named as an accused person in the charge sheet.

The two along with KPC officials conspired to defraud Kenya Shell Limited, Hashi Empex Limited, and Mutual Kenya millions of shillings by purporting that Triton Petroleum Company had a volume of thousands of cubic litres of diesel, held by KPC at Kipevu Oil Storage Facility available for sale.

They were alleged to have conspired to defraud Emirates National Oil Company thousands of metric tonnes of aviation fuel and diesel shipped via MT Chang Jiang and MT Overseas Primar by issuing false inventory of stocks held by KPC on collateral finance account of Triton and Emirates National Oil Company.

The case will be heard on September 7.