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The Nairobian

Businesswoman fights mental health test request in fraud case

National

By Kamau Muthoni | Feb 13, 2025

**Mombasa businessman Ali Punjani**. [File, Standard]

Businesswoman Fatmabai Sherali has urged the High Court to dismiss a mental test application filed by Mombasa businessman Ali Punjani and her siblings in an alleged multi-billion fraud case.

Sherali’s lawyer Hans Oichoe told Justice Peter Mulwa on Wednesday that the medical document relied upon to dispute her sanity showed that she was depressed.

Oichoe argued that despite Punjani, Parviz Haiderli, Zuher Ladak, her nephew Ali Badrudin, and niece Nazlin Aminmohamed claiming to have gotten the document from Kilimani Police Station, there was no correspondence or evidence to prove this.

Instead, he said, the document was obtained from her former lawyer who illegally gave it away to her opponents.

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“From a bird’s view, you cannot read good faith. The path adopted by the respondents is a very desperate one. The defendants do not know how to deal with it. The whole pursuit to declare the plaintiff unfit is based on a report which they alleged obtained from Kilimani Police Station, she has denied she ever gave to the report to the police. Instead, it was obtained from her former advocate, which was a breach of client confidentiality,” argued Oichoe.

The lawyer asserted that there was a separate document showing that Sherali was going through a loss but was not mentally ill.

“It is a mockery for the defendants making fun of her pain. If loss can be used against someone and they are called sick and insane, I don’t know what happened to humanity. There is no legal basis for the court to order for mental assessment,” said Oichoe.

On the other hand, Punjani, Haiderli, Ladak, Badrudin, and Nazlin’s lawyer, Steve Nyamu, said that Sherali had agreed to undergo a mental test. Nyamu argued that the only contention was whether it should be done in a public or private hospital.

He asserted that the court should order her to appear before public officers who will be cheaper.

“The advocate for the respondent acceded to the prayer for the application for a mental assessment. You issued an order for the evaluation, so the mental assessment issue has been agreed upon. We do not have an objection of it being done but for impartiality, let the same be done in a public hospital and the process be overseen by the court,” said Nyamu.

Sherali sued Punjani, several banks, company directors, and the National Lands Commission (NLC) over allegations of fraud.

However, all the accused parties deny the allegations and seek to have the cases dismissed. The cases involve Punjani, Haiderli, Ladak, Badrudin, and Aminmohamed.

Also cited are the law firm Anjarwalla and Khanna (ALN Kenya), along with the Director General of Business Registration Service. Other parties named in the case include African Banking Corporation (ABC Bank), Diamond Trust Bank, NLC, and Equatorial Secretaries and Registrars.

In the cases, Sherali accused Haiderli and Nazlin of using Abdeel Enterprises Limited and Abdeel Investments Limited, and her relatives illegally used her credentials, to conduct fraudulent transactions.

On the other hand, Abdeel, Badrudin, Nazlin, Amynaz, Ladak, and Punjani want the cases struck out. They argue that Sherali is mentally disturbed, with a medical report supporting their claim. They also contend that she lacks the capacity to file these cases and should be forced to deposit security to protect them should they prevail.

Regarding ABC Bank, Sherali alleged that Abdeel took a Sh300 million loan without her consent or approval.

In the DTB case, she alleged that Abdeel had been credited with more than Sh1.2 billion while in a separate dollar account, the company had allegedly advanced at least $1 million (Sh128,000,000), which remained unpaid to-date.