CID Quizzes Businessman Parimal Patel over Illegal Sale of Expropriated Asian Property

The select subcommittee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) has handed Businessman Parimal Patel to the criminal investigations Department for meddling into the expropriated Asian property. 

Parimal Patel had appeared before the committee which is currently investigating circumstances under which departed Asians properties that were fully compensated for by government ended up in the hands of individuals and companies. 

The committee is in possession of a report pinning Parimal Patel for having fraudulently taken over departed Asians properties in parts of Eastern Uganda.

He is particularly on the spot for allegedly selling off 16 properties of Budaka Ginners Limited that had been entrusted to him as a manager.  Parimal Patel says he sold the properties on the directives of the company directors, a team of departed Asians, who gave him powers to sell properties on their behalf.

But according to the committee, there is no evidence to back his claims. The committee also tasked him to avail evidence that the company has been paying taxes to Uganda Revenue Authority.    Records of Uganda Registration Services Bureau indicate that Budaka Ginners last filled tax returns in 1989. 

Although he confirmed that he wasn’t paying taxes, Parimal Patel said he had receipts to prove that he sold the property on behalf of the departed Asians. He says that he was earning a commission of 25 per cent from each sale, calculated on the basis of the powers of attorney agreement signed with the departed Asians.   

Asked to explain how he was remitting the money to the owners, Parimal said that he was collecting the money on his personal bank account, and sent it abroad through Standard Chartered Bank, and Bank of Baroda.   

//Cue in; “In a situation… 

Cue out…you have collected.”//     

Parimal says on several cases, he has lost the property to unscrupulous people in Government   

//Cue in; “I was forcibly…  

Cue out… washed his hands”//      

Committee Chairperson Ibrahim Kasozi handed Parimal Patel to CID to find out how he was managing Plot 17 Budaka ginners in Mbale and other properties of Anglo African limited. Kasozi also asked Parimal to hand over his passport to CID.   

The properties under review have been under the management of the Departed Asians' Property Custodian Board, a government body that has been in charge of thousands of properties since 1983.  Reports indicate that 1,676 properties had been sold, some repossessed, and compensated by 2009, while some 3,226 remained unsold and unclaimed. 

But the MPs say that a number of them were fraudulently acquired by individuals, while several others were sold below the price that the government used when redeeming them from financial institutions.