Durban - It was an emotional day in court on Friday for the family of Isipingo pensioner and active community member Nadarajan Nayager, who died after being attacked by his friend with a metal rod.
His family was devastated soon after 67-year-old Mpumelelo Sindane was convicted for culpable homicide and theft instead of on the charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances that Sindane had pleaded not guilty to at the start of his trial this week.
“We had treated him as part of our family, and with love and respect,” said Nayager’s daughter, Devaloshni, soon after the verdict.
“This is the way we were raised. He first came to our house years ago, begging, and had since returned each day. He had become a friend and companion to my dad. We provided him with clothes and food, and to hear the guilty verdict for culpable homicide, instead of murder, is heartbreaking.”
During arguments for sentencing, Nayager’s son, Yogan, provided the court with an emotional insight into his father’s character and how much he was respected in the community.
Nayager, 65, had worked at the Social Pension Service and, after his retirement, continued being an active member of the community, involved in the Rainbow Nation organisation, the Isipingo Community Policing Forum and the Senior Citizens Organisation in Merebank.
Durban High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay sentenced Sindane to 10 years in jail for culpable homicide, and a further two years for theft. These sentences are to run concurrently.
Despite their disappointment over the conviction, the Nayager family appeared happy with the sentence.
At the start of the trial, Sindane’s Legal Aid attorney, Pragasen Marimuthu, read out his client’s guilty plea to assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and to theft.
State advocate ZG Mshololo told the court the State did not accept this guilty plea, and would still pursue the charges of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Sindane had claimed he had worked as a gardener for Nayager from November 2014, and said he was owed in excess of R19 000, according to his calculation.
He said on January 13, both he and Nayager had argued over his payment. Sindane had grabbed a metal rod from under the wash basin in the yard and had struck Nayager, five times.
The first was a blow to the back of his head. Sindane had bound Nayager’s hands with a cellphone charger cord and a shirt, and had then covered Nayager’s face with a pillow. Before leaving the house, Sindane took Nayager’s cellphone.
He was arrested the next day by Detective Warrant Officer Rajen Nagesar and the police provincial task team.
In handing down her verdict, Judge Pillay rejected Sindane’s version that he had struck Nayager out of fear that Nayager would act on his alleged threat to shoot him.
She found there was no evidence of this imminent threat that caused Sindane to fear for his life. “He attacked an elderly man, who had suffered from a severe coronary disease, with a blunt instrument. He (Sindane) ought to have known, he would have caused the deceased’s death,” said the judge.
She found there was no evidence that Sindane intended to kill Nayager, hence the culpable homicide conviction.
On the robbery charge, the judge found the taking of the cellphone pointed to being incidental, as it followed the attack. “The plea of theft is appropriate in the circumstances,” she said.
Daily News