Durban - A Pietermaritzburg businessman, intent on ruining a doctor’s reputation for allegedly having an affair with his wife, not only trumped up a sexual assault charge against him, but also paid people to protest outside court.
And to make it look realistic, Rajivee Soni and his lackey, former policeman Sugen Naidoo, bought “poster paper and markers”, on which slogans to the effect of “Sex doctor leave KZN”, “Dr Sewram, leave KZN” and “Sex Pest” were written.
Naidoo continued testifying on Thursday in Soni’s Pietermaritzburg High Court trial. Soni faces six charges of defeating or obstructing the course of justice, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm and for the killing Dr Bhavish Sewram in May 2013.
Naidoo’s lengthy evidence focused on a fabricated second sexual assault charge against the doctor, which was eventually withdrawn.
The day before, he had testified on various plans Soni came up with from February 2012, for a year, to embarrass, injure and ruin the doctor’s reputation. He wanted to “drive” him out of town.
Naidoo said that on the day the doctor was meant to appear in court, he and Soni drove past to see the protest.
While chatting, Soni told him that his contact – who Naidoo referred to as Captain Hafejee – had been paid R30 000 to R50 000 to “get the press or photographers to court to ensure that the doctor was exposed in the newspapers”.
The alleged assault victim’s stepfather, fireman Zaheer Khan, had been given R3 000 to R5 000 to hire people to protest, said Naidoo. When Soni and Naidoo drove past the court, Soni complained that the protesters looked lazy and told Naidoo to call Khan and tell him to “tell his people to get more energy”.
Soni and Naidoo initially approached Khan to assault the doctor. But when Khan told them that a few years back, the doctor had interfered with his stepdaughter, Soni “became excited”, abandoned the assault plan and came up with a new one – for the woman to lay a false sexual assault charge against the doctor.
Naidoo said she and Khan would be paid R20 000 to lay the charge, R20 000 if the doctor appeared in court and R2 500 each time they went to court. They agreed and went to the family violence and sexual offences unit where they opened the case.
Soni’s contact (Hafejee) looked at the statement to see if it was strong enough for the doctor’s arrest. It was.
Khan’s wife was later “being put under pressure to withdraw the charges”.
“The accused told them if they made the case stick, they would become rich people and would not have to work again… he told them if it came out they made a false statement, they would be charged and would lose everything,” said Naidoo.
Soni also told them if anyone offered them money to withdraw the case, they should tell him and he would set them up and have them arrested.
Naidoo also spoke about how Soni had hired an attorney to represent the “victim” and take down a good statement from her.
The case against the doctor was eventually withdrawn. Naidoo said it was because the plan that the “victim” be examined and then run out of the surgery hysterically – so that it was captured on cameras the doctor had installed at his surgery – was not stuck to.
When the footage was viewed, it did not show her running out.
“The accused was absolutely furious when the charge was withdrawn,” said Naidoo.
He continues testifying on Friday.
The Mercury