Gandhi’s Great-Granddaughter Sentenced To Seven Years In South Africa
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A court in Durban, South Africa has sentenced Mahatma Gandhi’s great-granddaughter to seven years in prison. She was accused of cheating and forgery of 60 lakh rand. On Monday, the court convicted Ashish Lata Ramgobin in this case.
Ashish Lata Ramgobin was accused of cheating businessman SR Maharaj. SR Maharaj gave him 6.2 million rand (African currency) in advance as import and customs duty for a consignment present in India. Ashish Lata Ramgobin had talked about giving a share in that profit.
In 2015, during the trial of the case against Lata Ramgobin, Brigadier Hungwani Moloudzi of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) had said that Lata Ramgobin had allegedly provided forged invoices and documents to potential investors. Through which she was telling investors that three containers of linen are being sent from India. At that time Lata Ramgobin got bail of 50,000 Rand.
New Africa Alliance Footwear Distributors Company imports and manufactures and sells clothing, linen and footwear. Maharaj’s company also finances other companies on a profit-share basis. NPA spokeswoman Natasha Kara said that Lata Ramgobin had said she was facing financial difficulties to pay the import cost and customs duty and she needed money to clear the goods at the port.
After this Lata Ramgobin told Maharaj that he needed 6.2 million rand and showed related documents also, which contained documents related to the purchase of goods. A month later, again Lata Ramgobin sent another document to SR Maharaj, which was a Netcare challan, which showed that the goods had been delivered and had not been paid.
Thereafter, due to Ramgobin’s family credentials and Netcare documents, Maharaj entered into a written agreement with him for the loan. However, when Maharaj came to know that the documents were forged and Netcare had no agreement with Lata Ramgobin, Maharaj filed a case against Ramgobin.
Ashish Latha Ramgobin was denied permission by the Durban Specialized Commercial Crime Court to appeal against the charges after the charges were proved and convicted. It is noteworthy that Ashish Lata is the daughter of famous activist Ila Gandhi and late Mewa Ramgovind.