The Buganda Road Court Grade one Magistrate, Stella Amabirisi has released on bail Mukesh Shukla, the Executive Director of Shumuk Aluminium Investment Limited.
The development happened last evening shortly after the businessman was charged with 13 counts of forgery, uttering a false document and conspiracy to commit a felony.
This stems from last year when the accused together with others still at large allegedly forged documents for the official handover of Hotel Diplomat located in Muyenga belonging to the late Bonny Katatumba, the former Pakistan Consul in Uganda to Mukesh.
The businessman allegedly forged the signature of members of Katatumba's family Angella Katatumba, Annie Grace Katatumba, Bonny Katatumba, Rugirwa Katatumba and Ian Katatumba on April 17th, 2015 and November 2017 authorizing him to take over the hotel officially, plus the signature of George William Kalyegira, the officer in charge of the security of the Chief Justice.
He denied the charges, claiming he isn't a criminal and applied for bail through his lawyer, Odekel Opolot on grounds that he has a fixed place of abode, no pending cases, has never been convicted of any offense and has substantial sureties including; city businessmen Henry Kasirye Kavuma of African Safaris Uganda Limited, Elno Bamwine of Master Links Limited and Sulaiman Kanamara, the Manager Slow Boat Properties Limited, saying they were his longtime friends.
Miriam Njuki, the State Prosecutor objected to the bail application, saying they needed time to verify whether the suspect has a fixed place of abode and that she had contacted the Investigating Officers, Martin Onguti and Amos Obura and discovered that the accused hadn't deposited his passport with court despite being given police bond.
The lawyer told court that his client had left some documents with the Jinja Road Divisional Police Commander. However, Amabirisi who had earlier declined to listen to other bail applications, saying she was tired later granted Mukesh bail, saying the offenses are bailable, and ordered him to pay 3 million Shillings in cash while each of his sureties to execute bond of Shillings 10 million. She confiscated Identity cards of the sureties until Mukesh presents his original ID and Asian Passport on November, 21st, 2018.