Mombasa tycoon Ashok Doshi arrested, to be charged Monday

Renowned businessman Ashok Doshi. [File, Standard]

Mombasa businessman Ashok Doshi is expected in court on Monday after he was arrested by the DCI on Saturday.

Doshi, a renowned businessman at the coast was arrested by detectives from the DCI land Fraud unit. He was however released on cash bail by officers at the Muthaiga police station.

Doshi's arrest is in relation to a land in the city worth billions of shillings.

DCI head of Investigations Abdalla Komesha on Sunday confirmed the arrest of the businessman. Komesha said the trader will appear in court to answer to charges of land fraud.

In October 2021, Doshi and his wife lost a petition which they had sought a permanent restrain against the police and the DPP from arresting and charging them over alleged fraud relating to the prime parcel of land in Nairobi.

Doshi has been involved in the land despite with another company both claiming ownership of the land along Nairobi's Processional way.

In court documents, the Doshis told the court that they are the registered owners of the land.

The land, according to the records was originally owned by Greenview Lodge Ltd.

Greenview then sold the land t to Magnum Properties Ltd before it was transferred to them in 2018 for Sh150 million.

The Doshis said despite having sold the land to Magnum Properties Ltd, Greenview Lodge Ltd and its director Jennifer Nthenya, had lodged numerous complaints to various government institutions.

The petitioners claimed that Greenview Lodge Ltd and Nthenya, in their complaints, alleged that the land had been fraudulently transferred to Magnum Properties Ltd and subsequently to Doshi.

At the time, the Doshis claimed that the complaints had been investigated by various government agencies, including the police and DPP. The investigative agencies, he said in court papers, had dismissed all the claims of ownership dispute.

But Green view Lodge in response documents said it is the legitimate proprietor of the land, allocated to them by Government in 1986.

Green view Lodge Ltd said the matter had received extensive and lengthy investigations by internal departments of the Ministry of Lands and Settlement and the National Land Commission.