A Mombasa Court has granted an elderly Kenyan businessman the go-ahead to attend court proceedings from his hospital bed in India after the court allowed him to travel for treatment.
70-year-old Shivjibhai Jadva Parbat Varsani will appear virtually for the mention of his case on Tuesday for the first-time following orders granted by Mombasa senior resident magistrate Gladys Ollimo.
Ollimo, on January 5, allowed Varsani to travel to India for urgent treatment after the accused lawyers, M. Kinyua and King’ang’ia Wachira, successfully made an application.
“The first accused is hereby allowed to travel to India to seek urgent medical attention. He may attend court virtually on the scheduled mention date subject to availability of a virtual platform,” Ollimo said in her court orders.
She had also ordered Varsani or his representatives to tender evidence of his departure from the court’s jurisdiction in the form of a copy of air tickets or boarding pass. This came after the prosecution raised doubt about his excuses for missing court dates.
Varsani had been missing court dates over alleged ill health, a state of affairs that saw six warrants of arrest had issued against him in six separate matters that Varsani’s six companies are involved in.
However, in December, Mombasa chief magistrate Alex Ithuku suspended the arrest warrants after the tabling of the letters from an Indian hospital that proved he had indeed been treated there.
Ithuku had also ordered that Varsani be produced in court on December 18.
His lawyers however produced Varsani on December 15 and sought permission for him to travel subject to them producing the proof of travel.
Varsani is charged alongside Paresh Shivji Parbat and Victor Arara Were with 11 counts of illegally transferring one ordinary share valued at 20 billion shillings to Jadva Parbat between April 14, 2002, and January 31, 2006. The shares are the property of the late Premji Manji Pindolla held in Ghanshyam Builders Limited.
They were also charged with forging the late Pindolla’s signature with the intention of defrauding him.
