By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

A FORMER manager at Trade Kings Group of Companies yesterday pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of theft by servant, obtaining pecuniary advantage, forgery and uttering a false document.
Murphy Gajula Serebivas, who is facing 16 counts of obtaining pecuniary advantage, is alleged to have used a forged diploma to gain employment as packaging and procurement manager from the company.
Serebivas is alleged to have between November 30, 1987 and June 8, 2001 in Lusaka jointly and whilst acting together with other unknown people with intent to defraud, forged a document namely diploma number 87101575 in mechanic engineering in the name of G. Sreenivasa Murphy.
He allegedly purported to show that it was genuinely issued and authorised  by the State Board of Technical Education and Training.
Serebivas is also charged with obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences.
He is alleged to have between June 2001 and December 31 by false pretences obtained for himself a pecuniary advantage by being employed at Trade Kings Group of Companies as a packaging and procurement manager of which he earned remuneration of K140, 460 and US$260, 977.
He is in three other counts alleged to have stolen thousands of money from his former employers while he served as packaging and procurement manager.
After magistrate Jennifer Bwalya read out all the 16 charges to him, Serebivas, who identified himself as a business executive, denied the offences.
His defence lawyers Keith Mweemba and Shadreck Mbewe applied to have their client granted bail pending the hearing of the matter.
Mr Mweemba submitted that Serebivas was of fixed abode and that the offences he was charged with were all bailable.
But the State, which did not object to the application for bail, asked the court to order him to surrender his passport to the clerk of court as part of the bail conditions.
Mr Mweemba objected, saying the State had no right to direct the court on what kind of conditions it should attach to someone’s bail.
Ms Bwalya granted Serebivas K10, 000 cash bail and further ordered him to provide two sureties from reputable and prudent organisations at the level of director or their equivalent.
She adjourned the matter to May 4, 2016 for mention and June 30, 2016 for commencement of trial.