“He rose from the dead and signed”: Billionaire’s Daughter Accused of Forging Will to Disinherit Sisters

A daughter of a late businessman is facing charges for allegedly forging her father’s Will just a month after his death to cut her two sisters out of property and billions of shillings held in bank accounts..

Testifying before Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Susan Shitubi, Kalpa Chandarana accused her sister, Dinta Devani Pathanja, of forging the Will of their late father, Balkrishna Ramji Haribhai Devani, to deny Kalpa and their other sister, Shilpa, their rightful inheritance in Pelican Limited, Silverstar Properties, and Stanmore Development Limited.

Kalpa told the court that their father had drafted his Will at Dally & Inamdah Advocates on June 3, 2019.

“Is it your evidence that your sister, Dinta, and others forged the Will of your father a month after he died?” the prosecuting counsel asked.

“Yes. My father died on June 5, 2019, and this codicil is dated July 2019,” Kalpa replied.

She added,

“It means that he rose from the dead and signed the minutes of a directors’ meeting, thus altering his Will and granting my sister Dinta the companies to our detriment.”

The magistrate heard that the alleged illegal transfer of her shares to Dinta has caused Kalpa physical and emotional suffering, and for the past seven years, she has been fighting to reclaim her shares.

After the business tycoon’s death, Dally & Inamdah Advocates gathered the family, including their late mother, Dinta, doctors, and a few relatives, to open and read the Will aloud. Kalpa testified that their father had divided his estate equally among his three daughters: Kalpa, Dinta, and Shilpa, who lives in London.

She said that a month after his death, someone filed an inheritance case at Milimani Law Courts, and she was shocked to discover that Dinta had filed a codicil to their father’s Will. The codicil allegedly transferred vast shares of the family estate solely to Dinta.

“After the Will, which divided shares in the estate among all of us, none of us raised any objection to the way he had distributed his properties,” Kalpa said.

Kalpa discovered the changes in documents filed at the Milimani High Court Division, where the succession case was being handled. She said the amendments threatened her inheritance rights and also affected her sister Shilpa in the United Kingdom.

Besides revoking sections of the industrialist’s Will, Dinta, along with her husband Abbay Singh Pathanja and two senior employees, allegedly transferred shares in 2018 in Pelican Limited.

Kalpa testified that Dinta, together with Samuel Ngugi Ndinguri and Addah Nduta Ndambuki, forged minutes of a directors’ meeting while their father was receiving treatment in the UK between July 12, 2018, and February 5, 2019. The minutes falsely claimed the meeting was attended by the deceased and his late wife.

The court also heard that the accused altered Devani’s Will without being administrators of the estate. Ndinguri allegedly filed a false affidavit in a succession matter to manipulate the deceased tycoon’s estate.

All four face charges of conspiring to forge the codicil of Devani’s Will, including falsifying suit documents and board meeting minutes of Pelican Signs Limited in Nairobi in November 2019.

The accused denied the charges and applied for release on bond. The prosecution did not oppose the request.

Justice Shitubi granted the accused bond of KSh3 million with a surety of the same amount, or an alternative cash bail of KSh1 million.

The post “He rose from the dead and signed”: Billionaire’s Daughter Accused of Forging Will to Disinherit Sisters appeared first on Nairobi Wire.