• Devani has been at the Industrial area remand area for the last 13 days after the court declined to release him on bail terms when he was charged.
• Milimani Magistrate Thomas Nzyuki had directed a pre-bail report be filed on the accused.
Image: The Star
A Magistrates court will today rule on whether it will release oil tycoon Yagnesh Devani on bail after pleading not guilty to fraud charges last week.
Devani has been at the Industrial area remand area for the last 13 days after the court declined to release him on bail terms when he was charged.
Milimani Magistrate Thomas Nzyuki had directed a pre-bail report be filed on the accused.
The report he said should detail persons related to him, their whereabouts and the social behaviour of the accused person.
The plea-taking had initially been opposed with Devani's advocate Moses Kurgat indicating to the court that it wouldn't be appropriate to have Triton charged because the company was liquidated.
Devani was allegedly the managing director of Triton at the time the case started.
"The official liquidator should be in court to appear for Triton," said Kurgat.
State counsel Jeremiah Walusala urged the court to proceed with the plea saying they are not aware of the company being under liquidation.
"There's no document or any pleadings shown to support his submission," he said.
This prompted the court to ask for information regarding ownership of Triton as of December 2007.
Nzyuki also asked parties to answer questions on who should be held responsible on behalf of Triton.
"Should it be the official receiver or the directors and who are these directors?" posed the Magistrate.
Details of this information are expected to be tabled before the court today.
Devani faces eleven counts of fraud all ranging from conspiracy to defraud, obtaining by false pretences and fraudulent disposition of mortgaged goods.
On count one, he was charged with fraudulent disposition of mortgaged goods.
It's alleged that Devani on September 5, 2008, being the Managing Director of Triton Petroleum Company Limited, together with others before the court being the mortgagor of 19,186.130 cubics (Diesel) with intent to defraud the mortgagee, Emirates National Oil Company (Singapore) Limited, disposed of a volume of 13,054,850 cubic meters valued at USD 10,146,888.36 and Sh32,017,783.66 (totalling Sh1.6bn) of the said fuel to Total Kenya Limited without the consent of Emirates National Oil Company (Singapore) Limited, the mortgagee.
Separately, Social media enthusiast Scorphine Maverick Aoko Otieno is expected to be charged over alleged posts she made on her social media handles.
She was arrested on Friday and detained over several posts she made online.
Aoko was picked up from her house in the city by police who took her to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for grilling.
This followed several complaints lodged with the police over her posts, her lawyer said without elaborating.