Now Devani mystery deepens

A Cabinet minister has insisted that a man police held for three days was fugitive tycoon Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani.

Mr Otieno Kajwang’, the minister of Immigration and Registration of Persons, on Wednesday told reporters that his ministry had evidence that the man was Mr Devani.

He spoke a day after police spokesman Eric Kiraithe sent a statement to newsrooms saying police investigations had found that the arrested person was not the man wanted but his nephew, with whom he shares family names.

Mr Devani was released on Tuesday. Police sent to newsrooms a poor quality photograph of the man they said had been in their custody.

But on Wednesday, Mr Kajwang’ said: “It is only this ministry that has the capacity to positively identify a person — dead or alive. “If police were in doubt of who they were holding, the people who would have helped them are our officers,” the minister said.

Mr Kajwang’ added that his position was informed by “expert advice” he had received from immigration officers. He said that when he heard of the arrest of a man suspected to be the fugitive, he instructed immigration staff to check the information on his passport against that of the fugitive, which was in the immigration department’s database.

The result showed that it was Yagnesh Monhalal Devani, the man wanted for criminal charges, he added. According to Mr Kajwang’, his ministry could not go wrong; it has photographs and fingerprints of all persons registered as Kenyan citizens and issued with identification documents, and all the “technical people” with the expertise to verify identities are in that ministry.

With that, he yet again differed with the police over the identity of the man who police had held before releasing after being convinced that he was the wrong man.

“The fingerprints taken from the subject upon arrest were found not to be identical to known fingerprints of the accused, namely, Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani,” Mr Kiraithe had said on Tuesday.

According to Mr Kiraithe, it was further established that the man applied for renewal of the passport found in his possession on September 27, 2007, and the Immigration Ministry processed it “for one Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani, who is the accused in the two cases pending at the Nairobi Chief Magistrates Court.”

Released

“His age was confirmed to be 33 years, while the accused, who is his uncle, is aged around 45 years. Consequently, he was released,” Mr Kiraithe had said. But, according to Mr Kajwang’, the man could have been holding two passports, which is also illegal “but we are looking for him for more serious offences.”

So, he stuck to his guns. “Yesterday, police called me and asked if I was sure he was Devani and I said yes.” Mr Devani is accused, with seven others, of theft of Sh1.6 billion, fraudulently selling mortgaged goods, and conspiracy to defraud.