Vasundhara Oswal, Executive Director of PRO Industries and daughter of Indian-origin billionaire Pankaj Oswal, was detained and charged in Uganda for the alleged kidnapping and murder of an employee in October last year. She was briefly imprisoned, but the man alleged to have been murdered by Oswal was later found alive in Tanzania.
Sharing her ordeal in a Ugandan jail, the 27-year-old told Business Today’s Riddhima Bhatnagar, that she was denied basic human rights and proper legal recourse. She recounted being subjected to an unlawful raid without a search warrant, forcibly taken to prison, and coerced into giving a statement under the threat of indefinite detention. “I was kept in detention for 4 days illegally. They proceeded to tell me my charges only after a court order. It was the first time they had told me I was being charged with kidnap with an attempt to murder”, Oswal said, adding there was twist in the case, “when they found the murdered person about a week or two before I was granted bail. Yet, they still refused to release me.” Oswal alleges the entire episode was scripted by “business competitors” why may have conspired to keep her in jail.