Police have been given four days to detain the son of a former assistant minister and an activist accused of threatening to harm a city businessman for an unidentified reason.
Police claim in a bid to silence the businessman Chetan Baby alias CJ from being exposed over alleged criminal activities, he gave the two suspects Ksh 50 million.
The prosecution asked Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Bernard Ochoi to allow the detention application against Musaari Khiga Syongoh and Alivin Nzomo Muthami for 15 days in order to finish investigations into the extortion by threats charges.
“I urge this court to detain at Parklands police station to allow police to complete their investigations into the matter,” said Prosecutor James Gachoka.
The two accused are being probed for threatening to kill Chetan and extortion.
Gachoka told the magistrate that the two suspects are a flight risk and are being investigated for serious crimes.
“Allow Owing to the gravity of the charges facing the suspects herein and the fact they pose a flight risk releasing them will interfere with the ongoing investigations. Allow police to detain them for 15 days,” he said.
Gachoka told the court that ongoing investigations involve the recovery of apparatus used to commit the offense including the Sh 50 million and the Airtel numbers which the suspects used to send the threatening messages.
The court heard other key suspects are on the run and the police are pursuing them.
The defense lawyer vehemently opposed the detention of the two for 15 days saying that the “actual flight risk is Chetan, not them”.
The lawyer informed the court that he accompanied the police to the home of Syongoh where he witnesses the police recover the alleged cell phones and a laptop which are examined by the DCI Cybercrime Unit.
” The two suspects are not a flight risk. The complainant is the one who will disappear in thin air once the information that he (Chetan) is engaged in questionable business deals, ” the lawyer said.
He added that the father of Kahiga is a well know senior civil servant who served as the former MP Suba, former Trade assistant minister, and respected Ambassador and will undertake to produce his son to police whenever required.
The court was urged to release the two reasonable bond terms and to report to the investigation officer for interrogation and recording of statements.
“It only takes seven minutes for cybercrime experts to download information from cellphones and computers for examination and detection of criminal activities. Police do not need 15 days,” the defense lawyer to the court.
The magistrate ruled that there was no compelling reason to warrant the DCI 15 days detention order and allowed them only four days to finalize their investigations.
