Johannesburg, SA: A Durban court docket has convicted a 56-year-old Mahatma Gandhi's great-granddaughter to seven years in prison for her role in a six-million-rand fraud and forgery case. The court docket found Ashish Lata Ramgobin to be culpable on Monday.
She was charged with scamming businessman SR Maharaj after he reportedly paid her R6.2 million for allegedly clearing import and Customs charges on a non-existent package from India. He was guaranteed a cut of the profits.
Lata Ramgobin, the daughter of well-known rights activist Ela Gandhi and the late Mewa Ramgobind, was also denied leave to appeal her conviction and sentence by the Durban Specialised Business Criminology Court.
Image Source: 1. deccanchronicle.com (bottom)
2. indiatvnews.com (top)
Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said when the trial against Lata Ramgobin began in 2015 that she allegedly provided good invoices and papers to persuade potential buyers that three containers of linen were being sent in from India. Lata Ramgobin is currently being held on a fifty-thousand-rand bail.
During the hearing on Monday, the courtroom learned that Lata Ramgobin had met Maharaj, the director of the New Africa Alliance Footwear Distributors, in August 2015.Lata Ramgobin had told Maharaj that she had brought three containers of linen in for the NetCare Hospital Group in South Africa.
She stated that she was having financial difficulty paying for import costs and customs, and that she or he needed the money to clear the products on the harbour, according to NPA spokesman Natasha Kara on Monday.
“She suggested to him (Maharaj) that she wanted R6.2 million. To persuade him, she confirmed what she claimed was a signed buy order for the products. Later that month, she dispatched him what appeared to be a NetCare bill and supply notice as proof that the products have been delivered and fee was imminent,” she mentioned.