Kampala Businessman Mukesh Shakul troubles deepen as court issues last chance to raise 7.6B Bank loan in 30days or auction his property

By Our Reporter

Kampala – It’s only the coming back of Jesus Christ of Nazareth or Mohammed of Mecca that can rescue Kampala Businessman Mr. Shakul Mukesh as Court has given him only 30 days to raise a total of 7.6B as the accumulated loan he previously got from Bank of Baroda.

Apparently the Businessman has been left with only tears but insisting that the bank is in breach of the loan contract and that the bank was wrong to recall the credit facilities.

Reliable information is that, the businessman also seeks a permanent injunction, restraining the bank from selling, disposing of and evicting him from the said properties. But sources close to him indicates that there’s no more hopes for him to get back his property unless he’s rescued by the government or the president.

Bank’s chief manager in charge of credits, Jhanjari Sanal, in an affidavit, stated that: By statutory notice dated January 25, 2019, the bank acting through its lawyers, then known as Kateera and Kagumire (currently H&G Advocates) demanded the applicant to settle the debt within 45 working days from the date of the said notice, but Mr. Shukla Mukesh did not comply.

Bank of Baroda Uganda Limited was set to sell the property in an auction over a sh7.6b debt. But in this week, court temporarily halted the sale of the multi-billion shilling property of businessman Mukesh Shukla as his only remaining property.

In a statement issued by the Bank, they acknowledged a 30-day ultimatum to the businessman to clear the debt owed by his company, Shumuk Aluminium Industries Limited, or it proceeds to sell the properties. The said properties are located on Plot 24, Mukabya Road in Kampala, Plot No.M700 and the land at Uganda Manufacturers Association showground at Lugogo, Kampala.

John Paul Edoku, the Commercial Court registrar, issued the directive on March 28, in the presence of the parties.

Shukla was represented by Badru Bwango, while the bank was represented by John Fisher Kanyemibwa. “An interim order is hereby issued to restrain the respondent, its agents, servants or anyone claiming title under it from selling, disposing of, transferring and or tampering with the said property until the final disposal of the main case,” Edoku ordered.

Edoku said it would be travesty of justice for the bank to dispose of the mortgaged properties before the determination of the case. “The intended sale of the said properties during the pendency of the main suit and counterclaim shall amount to unjust enrichment of the bank circumvention of the due process of court in determining the matter in dispute,” the registrar said.

Edoku observed that there were triable issues that needed to be investigated and inquired into by the court in regard to the mortgaged properties by the bank. “The applicant is likely to suffer irreparable harm if the bank is not restrained from selling the property,” the registrar said. Court documents indicate that Shukla has been a customer of Bank of Baroda since 1992, during which it has had transactions of over $5m (sh19b).

Additionally, the bank had transactions with Shukla’s companies such as Shumuk Properties Limited, Shumuk Tours and Travel Limited as well as the predecessor East African Aluminium Works Limited. “The plaintiff has since 1994 operated a loan account for both credit and overdraft facility with the bank, which he has always serviced promptly as agreed,” court documents read in parts.

It’s said that, on January 25, 2019, the Bank issued a notice of sale of its securities on grounds that he was not servicing the loan but he further kept deaf ears.

He claimed that, the amounts in the notice of default was not the outstanding to under the mortgage and incorrect because it didn’t take into account the several payments that have been made towards the repayment of the loan.

He added that says the initial loan contract for January 31, 2017 was for 48 months from January 2017 and it still had more than 20 months to run and hence there was no justification for its recall by the bank. He now says the action of the bank to adjust the base lending rate upwards was in total breach of the terms of the loan contract and constituted an illegality since it was done in bad faith.

However, Court documents indicate that in 2018, the bank granted Shumuk Aluminium Industries an overdraft and loan facility, of sh6.3b and $350,000 (sh1.3b), respectively. According to court documents, the bank extended a credit and overdraft facility at an interest rate of 26% per annum.

Shukla still insisted that for the last 10 years, he has consistently reduced on the overdraft facilities to the bank, thereby leading to a strangulation of its operations, which has in turn reduced its income returns and ability to remit loan payments under its loan account. “I have been religiously servicing the said loan facilities ever since its disbursement and a copy of the bank statement shall be produced at the hearing in proof of the said facts,” he said.