A business man has been put to task to explain to the court why he evicted city businessman after receiving Ksh.981 million in rent.
Appearing before justice Charles Kariuki, Pankaj Chahhaganlal Shah told the court that he received the said amount arising from a lease agreement of September 2017 to September 2023 when the agreement was signed.
He informed the court that the plaintiff SBS DUNHILL GROUP LIMITED which is owned by City billionaire Chris Obure was evicted from the suit premises on May 16, 2025 pursuant to a court order which had been stayed
“The Tenant is not in the lease building. Through my lawyer we got orders for them to vacate. I don’t know that the orders were stayed and the case is still ongoing” Pankaj told the court
Through a vigorous examination by Obure’s Lawyer Muthoni Nkonge, the businessman admitted that the eviction orders were contested in court.
The court was told that the property in question, Senteu Plaza within Kilimani region is owned by four brothers namely Ajeetkumar Chhaganlal (deceased), Chandulal Chhaganilal Shah(deceased) ,Pankaj Chhaganlal Shah and Kamalkumar Chhaganlal Shah.
The four brothers entered into agreement with SBS Dunhill limited to sublet their premises for a period of six years for a consideration of Ksh 160M.
The judge heard that after the lapse of 6 years lease the property would be sold to SBS at a consideration of Ksh. 1.3 billion.
“It was also resolved at the said meeting that the prospective Landlord (s) be informed that the Applicant’s International Board of Directors would,” only take up space in their building and invest close to USD Ten Million (say USD 10,000,000.00) therein if the (the Landlords) agree in good faith that they would sell of the building to the Applicant at the expiry of the anticipated six (6)-year Lease term beginning 2017 to 2020 and 2020 to 2023,” Chris Obure told the court.
SBS told justice Kariuki that it was irregularly evicted after paying in excess of Ksh. 1 billion towards the acquisition of the suit property. However Pankaj denied receiving any money towards the purchase of the property
Pankaj told the court that by the time they evicted SBS from the property it was in rent arrears of Ksh.10 million.
“The tenant had indicated in a letter that he was in rent arrears and he was looking for money to offset the Rent arrears the money was not paid” said Pankaj.
In the intervening period Pankaj told the court that his two brothers who signed the lease agreements had died.
Court heard that Pankaj never signed any lease agreement with SBS but his late brothers did. The lease was signed by the late AjeetKumar Chahaganlal and Chandulal Chhaganlal Shah who died in 2018 and 2022 respectively.
The matter will be mentioned in October to confirm compliance with Submissions and fix a judgement date
By Citizen Digital