The late business tycoon Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani’s daughter is facing charges for allegedly forging her father’s will to exclude her two sisters from inheritance.
Dinta Devani, along with her husband Abhay Singh Pathania, Samuel Ngugi Ndinguri, and Addah Nduta Ndambuki, directors of Pelican Signs Limited, faced eight counts of forgery.
The four stand accused of transferring the deceased’s shares in Pelican Signs Limited without being administrators of Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani’s estate.
Dinta faces additional charges for allegedly transferring shares to herself in Silverstar Properties Limited without her deceased father’s explicit authorization.
Furthermore, she stands accused of forging a codicil to her father’s Will on June 5, 2019, claiming it to be genuine and duly executed by her late father.
It was revealed in court that Dinta provided false testimony in an affidavit sworn before lawyer Tom Onyambu regarding the High Court succession case concerning her father’s estate.
Moreover, Dinta allegedly presented forged documents to a high court judge on November 2, 2020, asserting their authenticity.
She faces five counts of unauthorized involvement with the estate, with the alleged offense occurring on August 14, 2019, at the Registrar of Companies in Sheria House, Nairobi.
It was disclosed in court that she had not been appointed as the administrator of her father’s estate.
All four individuals are jointly accused of submitting an affidavit at the high court in a succession matter E623/2020, purportedly to obstruct justice.
State prosecutor James Gachoka informed the magistrate that the four individuals allegedly forged Minutes of directors of Pelican Limited, falsely claiming they were appointed as directors of the company owned by the deceased industrialist.
Defense lawyer Danstan Omari requested the release of the accused on a reasonable bond, highlighting that their accounts had been frozen and they could not meet excessively high bond terms.
Omari added that Dinta has a health challenge and requires constant medical attention.
In his ruling, the magistrate took into account the arguments presented by the defense lawyers and directed the accused to provide a cash bail of Kes.200,000 along with one contact person, or an alternative bond of Kes.1 million.
