A sub-committee formed by the Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authority and State Enterprises to investigate the illegalities at Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board has confirmed that Plot 24 Kampala indeed belongs to city tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia.
COSASE leadership under the leadership of the outgoing Kawempe South legislator Mubarak Munyagwa formed the sub-committee to probe into the activities of DAPCB. COSASE then named Makindye East Member of Parliament Ibrahim Kasozi as the chairperson of the sub-committee that investigated the illegalities and irregularities at DAPCB. DAPCB was claiming ownership of the said plot and yet that same Plot 24 on Kampala Road was resolved by a court decision between Meera Investments Ltd and DAPCB and can’t be subjected to an inquiry.
The COSAE sub-committee has exonerated property mogul Sudhir Ruparelia after its probe found that he genuinely owns the Plot 24.
The Departed Asians Properties Custodian Board (DAPCB) had in July 2019 told the probe sub-committee chaired by Kasozi that tycoon Sudhir’s property was never reposed by the original proprietors before selling it to him.
But, in its report to Parliament that is set to be presented and adopted today, the probe sub-committee says Sudhir is the rightful owner of the property having defeated DAPCB in court in 2012.
Sudhir’s case is one of the 13 cases the DAPCB has lost out of the 124 that were listed as the total number of cases involving the entity that controls the properties left behind by Asians who were expelled by President Idi Amin in 1972. The DAPCB has so far won 10 cases whereas 99 cases remain unconcluded.
The DAPCB was formed to assist Asians who abandoned properties when President Idi Amin expelled them in 1972 to repossess them. However some Asians were compensated as their properties were transferred to Ugandans by way of buying them from DAPCB.
