Young businessman, Rajiv Ruparelia
Parliament has asked Government through the Minister of Internal Affairs to produce a report on the reported attack of Rajiv Ruparelia, the Managing Director of Ruparelia Group by security officers.
The directive was given by Speaker Rebecca Kadaga after Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo County MP raised a matter of national importance, noting that government should come out and explain the circumstances under which Rajiv was attacked by police officers.
Okupa noted that last week, social media was awash with reports and video of attempted kidnap of Rajiv around his home in Kololo.
“People came in a van, stopped and wanted to kidnap Rajiv, it took the dogs to save the life of this young man, we have been waiting for the Minister of Internal Affairs to tell us who these people were since we have had so many kidnaps in the past,” Okupa said.
Rajiv narrated that on Friday morning, while walking with his dogs, he saw a vehicle racing up at a terrific speed and wanted to inquire from them why they were driving that way on a residential road.
“I stopped to tell them that it was not safe for anybody to drive this fast on a residential road. I and my dogs were walking and i asked why an individual must drive this recklessly on a residential road,” Rajiv said.
He added: “I requested in a simple way but an officer angrily said to me that this is not India, this is Uganda. The police officer was not in an identified police vehicle, it was a private car. Based on that I had no idea that this was police.”
“He went on and asked me why I should ask him to slow down, I did not know there were several other officers in the car, they got out and started beating me,” Rajiv continued in this chilling tale.
It’s at this point that Rajiv let the dogs out.
“In the process of beating me, I was no longer able to hold my dogs. If someone is beating you how do you control dogs. I released them and they started running,” he said.
He went on to say, “Immediately the dogs saw that i was being beaten badly by the officers with sticks and gun butts and others were pushing me, they tried to save me. This was a racial attack!
“My dog watcher came to help me and in the process he was also beaten badly and he is now in hospital. As they were leaving, they knocked him with the car but they did not take his life.”
The victim is now in hospital. ” we are hoping he is recovering quickly,” Rajiv added.
However, Police has since noted that they have commenced investigations into the matter adding that they have so far found out that the business man released dogs to attack the police officers.
“Police at Kira Road Police Station is investigating the issue that happened between Rajiv Ruparelia and our officers from counter terrorism attached to Bank of Uganda that were heading to guard at the Deputy Governor’s office, investigations are going on and we shall get to the depth of the matter,” said Luke Oweyesigire, the Kampala Metropolitan Deputy Police Spokesperson.
