Bapu’s great-granddaughter gets 7-yr jail in SA for fraud

Johannesburg, June 8: Ashish Lata Ramgobin, the 56-year-old greatgranddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a Durban court in a six-million rand ($4,42,000) fraud and forgery case.

Ramgobin is the daughter of renowned human rights activist Ela Gandhi and late Mewa Ram-gobind, who have both played instrumental roles in reviving the Phoenix Settlement established by Gandhi during his tenure in South Africa.

A self-employed mother of two, Ramgobin was found to have defrauded businessman S.R. Maharaj after he advanced rand 6.2 million to her after she promised a share of large profits, allegedly to clear import and customs duties for a non-existent consignment from India.

Ramgobin was also refused leave to appeal both the conviction and sentence by the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Monday.

When the case against Ramgobin started in 2015, Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said she allegedly provided forged invoices and documents to convince potential investors that three containers of linen were being shipped in from India.

At that time, Ramgobin was released on bail of rand 50,000 ($3,683).

On Monday, the court heard that in August 2015, Ramgobin met Mr Maharaj, director of New Africa Alliance Footwear Distributors, which imports, manufactures and sells clothing, linen and footwear.

Mr Maharaj’s company also provides financing to other companies on a profit-share basis.

Ramgobin had told Mr Maharaj that she had imported three containers of linen for the major South African hospital group NetCare.