Durban - Five years after her husband was killed by hitmen, Yuvadia Sewram says she and her family can finally start healing, knowing the mastermind behind the murder plot will be in jail for 30 years.
The Pietermaritzburg High Court sentenced Rajivee Soni to three decades for planning and executing the murder of Dr Bhavish Sewram, whom he suspected of having an affair with his wife, Kerusha Soni.
He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for murder, five years for defeating the ends of justice, 18 months for assault and five years for conspiracy to commit murder.
Judgment
The sentences for the secondary charges will run concurrently with the other two sentences.
Sewram was gunned down outside his Chota Motala Road surgery in May 2013.
“When it happened, I knew it was him (Soni),” Yuvadia said. “Throughout the five years of running back and forth to court, I knew it was him. Whether he walked free, I knew he had to answer to a higher power eventually because he knows what he did.”
Days after Judge Jacqueline Hendriques handed down the sentence, Yuvadia said life after her husband’s death had not been easy for her or her two daughters, aged nine and 10.
Her daughters, Ysti and Zita, were three and four, respectively, when their father was killed.
She said her husband’s death had turned their lives upside down.
“When everything happened, I had to really pick up the pieces. The life Bhavish and I had planned was completely shattered and it was all because of one man’s ego and cowardice. I was an attorney but when I had the girls, Bhavish and I decided I would stay at home to raise them.
“I had to go back to work in 2013 and I had to find ways to make my little girls understand what was happening. They were too young.
“Nothing can bring back my husband. No form of punishment will ever bring him back.”
She said Soni always had a smug, arrogant look when the family saw him at court or while he was out on bail. “but now his money won’t get him far. He has no one else to blame but himself”.
Some of the most difficult moments for her, she said, was while Soni was on bail and they would bump into each other.
“I remember just this year, I took my girls to the Royal Showgrounds. As we walked in, I saw Soni with his son on his shoulders and his daughter by his side. I just stopped and looked at them and thought to myself: ‘Look at us now. Me with no husband and him with no wife’.
“It is still heartbreaking because he could have divorced his wife and let it be but he did everything, broke my family and still divorced his wife.”
Reminiscing about happier times, Yuvadia said she was introduced to Sewram in 2005 by a mutual friend. They agreed to go out on a date.
“It was a coffee date that lasted five hours. In those five hours, I knew I wanted to marry him. He was humble, loving and sweet. It was only two years later that we were married and a year after that we had our first child.”
It was during the five-year trial that the court heard of Soni’s revenge attacks on the doctor and his family in an attempt to drive them out of Pietermaritzburg.
Soni intends appealing his conviction and sentencing. He will appeal his sentence on November 21.