Durban - Callous and merciless is how Durban High Court Judge Dhaya Pillay described the mother and daughter who were convicted on Monday of the brutal murder of their 9-year-old relative, Shahiel Sewpujun.
Rajwanthie Haripersadh, 56, and her daughter, Kavitha Naicker, 32, were convicted of murder and were sentenced to 25 years and life in prison, respectively.
The judge deviated from imposing a life sentence for Haripersadh because she said she had to consider the woman’s age and illnesses.
Neither woman reacted when sentenced and both said they wanted to appeal against conviction and sentence.
The State alleged that they killed Shahiel by hitting him on the head with a chisel and then placing a piece of tape over his mouth and nose, thereby suffocating him, on February 5 last year.
His body was found in a stormwater drain not far from his Phoenix home on February 8 and a post-mortem showed that he died as a result of “blunt force trauma to his head” and smothering.
The women, Shahiel and his mother, Ishara Dewnarain, lived in the same home.
Judge Pillay said the women had shown no mercy in the way they killed him and had dumped his body in an area where it had been bitten by rodents.
“That in itself inspires such disgust, that blood relatives could resort to such is particularly disturbing,” she said.
In her victim impact statement handed to the court, a distraught Dewnarain, said: “There is no one to call me mummy’ anymore. I cry every day and I pine to hold him and to be with him. I have no words, no one and nothing can help me. I question God all the time,” she said in her statement.
Referring to her relatives only as the two “women”, Dewnarain said they had ruined her life.
“I gave him life and no one had the right to snatch him away from me. These two women have broken my hopes and my dreams for my baby.”
Speaking outside court, Shahiel’s father, Mohammed Shaheer Sewpujun, said he believed the sentences were suitable.
“I know that my son is in a better place. I hold no grudges against them, but I hope that they use this time (in prison) to show some remorse and repent. I am relieved it’s over so that we can move on with our lives, but it is going to be very, very difficult,” he said.
The judge also said the court found that there was planning and premeditation with regard to the murder of Shahiel and that the two had chosen a time when his parents were not home and had disposed of his body to avoid being caught out.
Regarding the motive, Judge Pillay said there were different versions regarding the murder, including that Haripersadh had killed Shahiel accidentally and that they wanted to get rid of a “naughty child”, but the court could not conclusively state what the motive was.
“There was some unhappiness about him that occurred over time.”
Judge Pillay granted the women leave to appeal only in respect of the court’s finding that there had been pre-meditation in the commission of the crime.
The Mercury