Justice Njoki Mwangi is set to sentence the director of Heritage Flower Limited, Punjani Riyaz Mahammadali on April 9, 2025.
The sentencing follows a conviction of the director for contempt of court after his lawyer failed to convince the court that Punjani did not act in utter disobedience of court orders.
Court documents indicate that Punjani disobeyed a court order issued on November 8, 2021, where Justice Chacha Mwita directed him to sign cheques in respect to monies necessary for the proper management of Heritage Flower Limited.
Further, in October 2023 Shailesh Rai Kumar one of the directors of Heritage Flower Limited moved to court after Punjani failed to sign his payment cheque.
Shailesh in court documents asked the court to compel Punjani to sign off his salary cheque for the month of September 2023.
Consequently, the court issued orders compelling Punjani to sign the cheque, he however declined to sign the cheque leaving the court with no other option but to convict him over contempt of court orders.
He appeared today before Justice Njoki Mwangi at Milimani High Court for mitigation before sentencing.
His lawyer told the Judge that his client had honored the Court’s orders that he had indeed signed the payment cheque for Shailesh.
He said that he is a family man and that he has no other criminal records.
He asked the court to be lenient on him while sentencing him.
However, the Advocate representing Shailesh objected to the allegations that Punjani had signed the payment cheque saying that he deliberately altered his signature on the salary cheque forcing the Bank of India to decline processing the cheques.
According to the Lawyer, the Bank of India said that Punjani’s signature in payment cheques differs from the specimen of his known specimen signature.
Justice Njoki said that sentencing will be on April 9, 2025, after she has read the averments in Punjani’s affidavit sworn on April 1, 2025, and after reading Shailesh’s affidavit expected to be filed following the alleged misconduct of Punjani in signing his salary cheques.
