Fugitive businessman loses bid to be struck off Interpol wanted list

A former managing director of vehicle tracking company Track-It has lost a bid to compel the International Police (Interpol) to strike his name off their wanted fugitives list, after the high court threw out a petition filed by his brother-in-law.

Justice Mumbi Ngugi on Monday ruled that ordering Interpol to retract Shezad Tejani’s red alert on their website would be interfering with the criminal justice system.

She added that the Kenyan police and Interpol used the right legal channels in obtaining his arrest warrant and listing him as a fugitive.

The fugitive businessman is wanted for allegedly obtaining nine cars from another businessman, Amin Mulji, using bad cheques.

He is holed up in the United Arab Emirates and claims he has been unable to leave the country because of the red alert notice posted by Interpol on its website last year.

He said in suit papers that Interpol violated his rights by listing him among fugitives before offering him a hearing. He also claimed that Mr Mulji was trying to use the criminal justice system to pursue a civil debt.

READ: Former Track-It chief fights to stop arrest by Interpol

Lady Justice Ngugi, however, ruled that the Kenyan authorities and Interpol followed the law in obtaining the arrest warrants against Mr Tejani, and that the fugitive businessman’s arguments ought to be presented before a criminal court as his defence.

“Mr Tejani ought to present these arguments to the criminal court after he presents himself to the Kenyan authorities. If the same facts in a civil case lead to a criminal case, it cannot overshadow the criminal case,” the judge said.

The cheques Mr Tejani issued to Mr Mulji were in the name of Track-It, a surveillance firm the fugitive was a managing director in.

Mr Tejani fled Kenya in 2010, a year after police started investigations into Track-It, which was accused of fitting fake tracking devices into its clientele’s vehicles.