Manish Kumar, the Indian national and CEO of commercial company namely UNITED SPIRITS Ltd, operating in Remera, Kigali, has sought government of Rwanda’s help over what he terms the injustice faced in commercial court trial against bailiff, Kagame K. Festo who confiscated his goods mainly composed of liquors, by the request of one RISHI ARYA.
Kumar narrated the ordeal to this newspaper citing the his goods were confiscated twice, and later the commercial court ignored the verdict from high court stated that all those goods were his.
The businessman says the situation has brought a huge loss of more than one hundred millions Rwandan Francs due to the confiscation of 3,700 boxes of whisky in a period of nine months.
” So far, we have not made any profit because the business was halted. We used to make three millions per each container. At least we sell two containers per month which means six millions per month and 54 million within nine months. We have 30 millions of inclusive loss and 54 millions of exclusive ones adding seven millions payment for the lawyer.” Kumar said
A copy of a document obtained by this newspaper, indicates that Kumar owns the good via the notary-signed agreement of payment for the goods, dated April 30, 2021.
Commercial court in Kigali decided these goods were not to be confiscated for they are properties of UNITED SPIRITS Ltd, a company owned by Kumar Manish.
However, the goods were confiscated by RISHI ARYA via a bailiff when the transfer from MAGERWA and Bollore was was not yet over.
It is believed RISHI ARYA confiscated the goods due to the a yet to know amount of money that LAXMI IMPEX, a company that sold goods to UNITED SPIRITS Ltd in presence of a notary, owes him.
So far, according to Kumar, the customs officials did not proceed with the handover of goods to his company and the longish list goods are still in the store.
LAXMI IMPEX assured Kumar that they do not owe any penny mr RISHI ARYA, hence they went to commercial court believing the justice will be served.
These goods were confiscated for the second time, and Kumar went to court where the mediation agreement reached by two parties on October 19, 2021 settled the matter.
Later, the goods were confiscated for the third time by a bailiff namely Kagame K. Festo, in order to seek payment for RISHI ARYA though it were obvious that LAXMI IMPEX no longer owns the goods.
Kumar requests that the panel of judge presiding his case against the auction of the goods should be made up of three judges instead of one. He believes ” One judge may get biased.”
The court ruled that the case will resume on March 3, 2022. Meanwhile, bailiff Kagame ignored the fact that on January 31, 2022 the court dismissed the case he and RISHI ARYA submitted to court against Kumar, citing it has no ground, yet he went on with auction of the goods that legally belongs to Manish Kumar.
Kumar says the auction was illegal though the commercial court did not give privilege to his statement against it. ” The auction was only announced in four days. No local authority was invited when it occurred…” Kumar said
” This is a treason done by people from the same group. Those who confiscate my goods are in the same group. One is motorcycle distributor, one is CEO of Universal company that distributes motorcycles, another one is Theoneste Rwabuneza, you will hear him distributing motorcycles in Eastern province, another one is VERMA, he distributes Bajaj.” He observed
It is expected this case whereby Kumar Manish accuses bailiff Kagame K. Festo, RISHI ARYA and bailiff Nsengumuremyi Anathore, will be tabled in the Court of Appeal in Kigali on March 3, 2022.
