IThe Return of Bench Warrant for Vikram Investment Chairperson Panyam Vikram Reddy, a notorious man who insulted and disregarded court orders comes up in the Magistrate Court on Tuesday, 25th February 2020.

This is in a case in which Vinod Yaddula, 40, has sued his former boss Vikram for theft of cheques and forgery.

When summons where delivered to him on December 26, 2019 dared Yaddula to “serve them on my ass or I will use them to wipe my manhood after enjoying my conjugal rights”
This was backed by pictorial evidence sent on WhatApp groups and intercepted by Tumfweko Media.

Resident Magistrate Lameck Mwale then made fresh dates for the matter which was 28th January but the accused chose not turn up in court, prompting Yaddula’s legal counsel Mulambo Haimbe to apply for bench warrant for the eminent arrest of Vikram and Kalikiri Poornakumar.

When the case was called for hearing, Counsel Mulambo Haimbe informed the Court that he had joined as co counsel on behalf of the complainant and would be prosecuting the matter together with Counsel K Phiri also of Malambo and Co and R Msumali of SLM legal practitioners. Counsel Haimbe then informed the Court that the summons to the accused persons had been served personally on the accused persons in India pursuant to Section 93 (1) of the CPC Cap 88 of the laws of Zambia and that the prosecution was not aware as to why the accused persons were not before Court.

The Counsel explained to the Court that in the absence of an explanation, they considered that the accused persons had wilfully disobeyed the summons, hence applied for a warrant for the arrest of the accused persons pursuant to Section 101 of the CPC as soon as they set foot in Zambia.

The Court granted the application and accordingly issued a bench warrant against the two accused persons returnable on 25th February 2020 at 09.00 before the same Court.

However, by press time, Vikram whose whereabout remains a mystery applied for the cancellation of bench warrant and the Magistrate will make a ruling on Monday, 24th February 2020.

According to the affidavit filed through his lawyers Messr Andrew & Partners, Vikram argued that he was made aware through social media platforms on 30th December 2019 that he was supposed to appear in Court to answer to a forgery case against the complainant.

He further argued that he learnt that he was issued a bench warrant by the Zambian Court returnable on 25th February through social media platforms for non attendance of court proceedings when the matter came up on 20th January 2020.