Two directors of Rosalia Blooms Limited, Shailesh Kumar Rai and his wife Ranjeeta Pandey Rai, faced major setback when the High Court dismissed their attempt to quash their prosecution in the Chief Magistrate Court.
They had sought to quash fraud and money laundering charges, citing insufficient evidence of prosecution misconduct and a delayed challenge.
The couple faces allegations of misappropriating over Ksh 117 million from Heritage Flowers Limited, alongside two employees.
In her recent decision, Justice Lilian Mutende of the Milimani High Court Criminal Division ruled that there was insufficient evidence to suggest that the prosecution was abusing the court process, emphasizing that the couple’s challenge came too late.
The Rai couple, alongside two employees, Isaac Ikua Kihara and Chris Oyunge, were charged in August of the previous year with multiple offenses, including conspiracy to defraud and forgery.
The charges stem from allegations that Shailesh Kumar Rai, during his tenure as director of Heritage Flowers Company, misappropriated significant sums of money—specifically Euros 368,416.71 and USD 348,166.94—over a period from September 2021 to August 2022.
The prosecution accused the directors of conspiring to defraud Heritage Flowers Limited out of Ksh 117,718,596, highlighting the seriousness of the financial misconduct.
Additionally, the couple, along with the two employees, faced separate charges of money laundering, with accusations that they engaged in transactions to conceal Ksh 107 million, knowing it was derived from criminal activities.
During the proceedings, the couple argued that the charges were unfounded and that the trial court had failed to recognize the separation between the company and its directors.
However, Justice Mutende’s ruling indicated that the legal arguments presented were not compelling enough to warrant dismissal of the charges.
