Blow for tycoon Mohan Galot in forgery case

Billionaire businessman Mohan Galot has lost a temporary stay order that had cushioned him against multiple criminal charges of fraud.

Mr Galot is accused of forgery in a dispute regarding the shareholding and directorship of the family’s multibillion shilling group of companies.

He is said to have forged signatures of public officers in the Lands ministry and registrar of companies to transfer three prime properties to M G Park Ltd without the consent of the other directors - the main protagonists in the suit.

At the centre of the prolonged legal battle between Mr Galot and his nephews – Mr Pravin Galot and Mr Rajesh Galot – is the control of Galot Industries, Manchester Outfitters, King Woolen Mills, Mohan Meakin, London Distillers Kenya Ltd and M G Park.

The companies deal in real estate, shares, beverage distillery, bottling and sale and clothes.

While vacating the stay order on the criminal proceedings he had issued earlier, Constitutional and Judicial Review judge George Odunga said the court had considered the likely consequences of continuing to block the plea-taking.

The tycoon is expected to be arraigned before the chief magistrate’s court on Tuesday to answer to the criminal charges.

The judge said the court ought to consider the likely upshot of granting the stay or not doing so.

“Confronted with such circumstances, what the court ought to do is to consider the twin overriding principles of proportionality and equality of arms, which are aimed at placing the parties before the court on equal footing and see where the scales of justice lie,” the judge ruled.

Consequently, he dismissed the application for the stay of the prosecution and observed that apart from the criminal proceedings exposing Mr Galot to stigma, “there is no other compelling reason advanced by the applicant why the trial ought to be stayed at this stage”.