A daughter of a deceased business tycoon has been accused of altering the will left by her father to disinherit her two sisters and surrendered herself to court following a warrant of arrest.
Dinta Devani and her husband Abhay Singh Pathania appeared before the Milimani chief magistrate Bernard Ochoi and requested him to lift a warrant of arrest against them.
The couple are accused of forging the will of the deceased businessman Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani.
The deceased was the proprietor of Pelican Signs Limited among other companies.
The couple were escorted before court by their lawyer Danstan Omari who pleaded with the court to lift a warrant of arrest against them saying they learned about the warrant via social media,
“You honor I urge this court to lift the warrant of arrest against them since they were not aware about their plea until they learned through social media hence surrendered themselves. I plead this court to release my clients on bond,” pleaded Omari.
The prosecution did not oppose the application by the defence but urged the court to order the couple to appear before the investigating officer to have their fingerprints taken.
The magistrate released them on a cash bail of 100,000 each and ordered them to appear before court on Thursday for plea taking.
On Wednesday last week, the director of Pelican Signs Limited was charged with interfering with the will of the estate of the late multi-billionaire Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani.
Samuel Ngugi Ndinguri was arraigned before the Milimani chief magistrate Susan Shitubi for intermeddling by transferring the shares of Pelican Roads Signs Limited without authority.
The magistrate heard that Ndinguri alongside Dinta Devani Pathania, Abhay Singh Pathania and Addah Nduta Ndambuki allegedly altered the will of Devani when they were not administrators of the deceased estate.
Ndinguri was further charged with filling an affidavit in a succession matter of the estate of the deceased tycoon.
Ms Shitubi was told by the prosecutor that the accused and others filed the said affidavit in the succession case aiming to defeat justice.
The court heard that Ndinguri jointly with the other three who did not appear in court forcified the suit documents to change the codicil to the will of Devani dated June 2019.
He was charged that in November 2019 at Pelikan Signs Limited in Nairobi forged minutes of the Board of Directors of the company purporting them to be genuine minutes.
All four are charged with conspiring to forge the codicil of the will left behind by Devani who died on June 7, 2019.
The accused denied the charges and applied to be released on bond which was not opposed by the prosecution.
Ms Shitubi freed the accused on a bond of Sh 3 million with a surety of the same amount or alternative cash bail of Sh 1 million.