Senior police officer Bakaleke case file sent to DPP; faces criminal charges

The police Professional Standards Unit has sent the case file for senior police officer and former Kampala South Regional Police Commander Siraje Bakaleke and six others to the Director of Public Prosecutions for perusal and advice, the Nile Post has learnt.

Bakaleke and his juniors are accused of unlawful deportation of two Korean investors, obtaining money by false pretence, aggravated robbery, theft and kidnap in a case involving Shs 1.4 billion.

Ordinarily, the senior officer would be investigated by the Professional Standards Unit(PSU) and arraigned before the police disciplinary court over disciplinary matters but since the offences are criminal in nature they are set to be tried in the civil courts.

PSU spokesperson Vincent Ssekate confirmed the case files had been sent to the DPP for perusal and advice on charging the suspects.

http://nilepost.co.ug/2018/03/05/save-the-best-for-last-kayihura-sacked-image-tainted-bakaleke-then-he-was-sacked/

“ Its true the file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions. Two files for the criminal offences and disciplinary offences have been sent,”Ssekate told the Nile Post on phone on Tuesday evening.

It is alleged that two South Korean investors Park Seunghoon and Jang Shingu Un were scheduled to meet some gold dealers in Kampala but were instead surrounded by security operatives who asked them to handover the money they had at gun point before going away with it.

According to a police officer privy to the case, the police officers who were allegedly working on orders of Bakaleke would later detain the two Koreans at Katwe division police headquarters before they were later driven to Entebbe to be forced onto the plane back home.

However, the South Koreans missed the Emirates flight and the police officers from Crime Intelligence decided to buy them air Rwanda tickets but before they could board, operatives from the Flying Squad swung into action foiling the illegal deportation.

The six junior officers would be detained at Nalufenya detention centre in Jinja district.

Speaking during his vetting last week, the new Inspector General of Police reportedly to the Parliamentary Appointments Committee that he had ordered for the arrest of Bakaleke but the decision was rescinded by his then boss, Gen.Kale Kayihura.

This looks one of the new police boss’ action of cracking the whip on some of the officers with in the force that President Museveni recently said was full of criminals.

Recently, a number of criminals including one Paddy Sserunjogi, a former criminal gang leader confessed that his group was working with some police officers to terrorise the public.

Two senior police officers including the former commanders of the police Special Operations Unit, SSP Nixon Agasiirwe and former PSU commander Joel Aguma are facing charges related to kidnap and forceful repatriation of Rwandese before the army court.

Speaking during the women’s day celebrations in Mityana last week, Museveni said the police had been infiltrated by been weevils which had failed force from fighting the ever increasing criminality in the country.