Former Crane Bank owner Sudhir (L) and his son Rajiv at the Commercial court in Kampala in 2019 Bank of Uganda has withdrawn a Supreme Court appeal which sought to compel controversial businessman Sudhir Ruparelia and Meera Investments Limited to refund Shs 397bn reportedly siphoned from the defunct Crane Bank.
“Take notice that the appellant does not intend further to prosecute the appeal,” said Joseph Byamugisha in a withdraw of appeal notice to the Supreme Court dated Sept. 15, 2021.
On June 30, 2017, Crane Bank Limited (in Receivership) took Mr. Sudhir Ruparelia and his Meera Investments Ltd. to court for causing financial loss amounting to Shs 397 billion to Crane Bank in fraudulent transactions and land title transfers. Crane Bank (in receivership) in its Civil Suit No. 493 of 2017 sought High Court to compel Mr. Ruparelia to pay back the US$80,000,000, US$9,270,172.00, US $ 3,560,000.00, US$990,000.00 and Shs 52,083,995.00 as compensation for breach of fiduciary duty.
However, Hon. Justice Wangutusi on August 26, 2019, dismissed the Shs 397 billion case against Mr. Ruparelia on a technicality, alleging that Crane Bank (in Receivership) lost its powers to “sue” and to “be sued”, thus rendering its suit a nullity.
BoU appealed the decision, saying receivership was a management situation, and hence no legal change as to capacity of a company to sue and be sued.
The central bank lost at the Court of Appeal before filing an appeal in 2020 in the Supreme Court.
BoU is yet to explain why it withdrew the case.
ChimpReports understands there wasn’t any behind-the-scenes negotiations between Sudhir and the central bank to withdraw the case.
BoU said in a notice to the Supreme Court that “the appellant (BoU) will pay the costs of the appeal and in the courts below to the respondents (Sudhir Ruparelia and Meera Investments ltd).”
The costs are in billions of shillings.
It did not say whether it would pursue claims for wrongful and illegal extraction of funds from Crane Bank with other relevant authorities such as police since the court case appears to have failed to progress due to legal technicalities. Background of BOU Case In a statement last year, BoU Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile said In exercise of its powers under sections 87(3), 88(1)(a)&(b) of the Financial Institutions Act, 2004, BoU placed Crane Bank Ltd (In Receivership) [“Crane Bank”] under Statutory Management on 20th October 2016.This decision was necessary upon discovering that Crane Bank had significant […]