Bank of Uganda has agreed to return money businessman Sudhir Ruparelia had deposited to run forex bureaus. However, BoU has refused to pay for damages and interest resulting from their keeping the money against any lawful procedure.
In attempting to cripple Mr Sudhir Ruparelia, BoU officials twists rules, holding onto all Sudhir’s money they had control over, including of forex bureaus which they closed illegally although they were not part of Crane Bank.
The Central Bank claimed that they would only return the money of the forex bureaus after the suit against Sudhir who they accused of removing over Sh200 billion from Crane Bank, was ruled.
That Crane Bank was closed for insolvency has since been debunked by the Parliamentary investigation which was backed up by the auditor general’s report which found Crane Bank had actually picked up.
The parliamentary report instead found BoU officials greedy, incompetent and fraudsters.
When the central bank closed down the four forex bureaus under Sudhir’s business empire, he wrote demanding that his deposits to run the businesses be returned. However BoU declined saying they can only return the money after the case against Sudhir has been disposed of.
Sudhir filed a case at the commercial section of the High Court questioning the rationale of holding his money he had deposited as security for running the forex bureaus even when the Central Bank had closed them.
Finally sense returned to the BoU official, after deputy governor Louis Kasekende wrote saying the central bank was to refund a total of sh277, 817,453 including money paid for renewal of the bureaus operation licenses.
Watchdog understands that the commercial court is yet to hear Mr Sudhir Ruparelia’s demand that the BoU also pays damages of over sh200 million as well as interest plus costs of the suit.
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