Lagos Attorney-General files for discontinuance in $8.8m fraud case against British citizen

The Lagos State Attorney-General, Honourable Adeniji Kazeem has, midway through a corruption case against Deepak Khilnani, filed a Notice of Discontinuance (known in legal parlance as Nolle prosequi), which has caused many Nigerians, including lawyers and workers of the affected company, to protest his action.

The matter is being heard in Court 8 of the Ikeja Criminal Division, before Justice Atinuke Ipaye, where Mr Deepak Khilnani, a UK citizen and allegedly an ex-convict, is accused of stealing over Eight Million Eight Hundred Thousand Dollars from a Nigerian company.

Although always represented in court by his Nigerian counsel, Mr Khilnani and his alleged accomplice Dr Sushil Chandra, had repeatedly failed to personally appear in court ever since the case commenced in 2015, even though the highly respected judge had ruled that the two men had a case to answer and that the court had jurisdiction.

What is surprising to many pundits, is that the Court had just in April-2017, granted the Attorney-General’s request by issuing a Bench Warrant for Mr Khilnani and Dr Chandra to be arrested and brought to court for arraignment, only for the same Attorney-General to then file a Notice of Discontinuance almost ten weeks before the next hearing date on September 25th.

While many argue that the AG is within his right to file for Discontinuance, the general belief is that such powers must be exercised in the public interest and without compromising justice.

  • Background of the case
  1. Police investigation of Deepak Khilnani and Sushil Chandra started in 2013 following a petition to the IGP by his Nigerian partners that the 2 men had stolen over $12 Million from their Nigerian company Green Fuels Limited through over-invoicing and then sent the money to the UK.
  2. Khilnani is a British citizen of Indian descent while Sushil Chandra is Indian and a former employee of Tower Aluminium
  3. Police at Lagos Zone 2 HQ, Onikan, led the investigation, during which there were several unusual events including;

a) When Police first arrested Deepak Khilnani at Lagos MM airport in June 2013, his counsel Chris Okunowo, took the unusual step of himself personally standing bail for his client.

b) When at the end of their investigation in June 2014, Police cautioned Khilnani that the KPMG Forensic Audit of GFL financial records that was undertaken revealed evidence that he had a criminal case to answer, Khilnani took the following suspicious steps

i] He hastily caught a flight out of Nigeria that same night and thereafter stopped living in Nigeria but simply left his lawyer, Chris Okunowo to report to the Police on his behalf

ii] His same lawyer hastily filed a suit against the Police for violating Mr Khilnani’s Human Rights, which case was heard by Justice Olatunde Oshodi at an Igbosere High Court as case number LD/480MFHR/2014, where the judge eventually found in favour of the Police

  1. In July 2014, the Lagos Zone 2 HQ police passed the case file to the Lagos State DPP, who advised that there was a case to answer
  2. In May 2015 Justice Atinuke Ipaye began hearing the case in Ikeja Criminal court 8 as case number ID/1544C/15.
  3. In August 2015 Khilnani’s same counsel filed Preliminary Objection stating that Khilnani had no case to answer and that the court lacked jurisdiction. The Lagos DPP vigorously argued against the Objection and in April 2016 Justice Ipaye ruled in favour of the DPP.
  4. As both Accused men refused to attend court for arraignment even after leave had been granted to serve their counsel, the A-G’s Prosecution team asked the court for a bench warrant to arrest and bring them to court for arraignment. On 03-April, the court granted the request and issued Arrest Warrants for the two men.
  5. Due to the Sallah Public holiday, the next hearing date had been rescheduled for September 25, 2017, to allow for the vacation of the Lagos Judiciary only for the AG to quietly file a Notice of Discontinuance on June 29, 2017. This, even though the two Accused have not yet been arraigned and the Arrest Warrant is still existing.
  6. The Hearing for the Notice of Discontinuance has been set for Thursday, July 13, 2017, at 9a.m. in the same Court 8.

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