Soni ‘forced’ to pay cop
BUSINESSMAN Rajiv Soni admitted in court last week that he had paid large sums of money to a key State witness and self-confessed “rogue cop” to drive assault and sexual harassment charges against murdered doctor Bhavish Sewram – but said he had been forced to as the policeman had threatened to have him arrested on a protection order if he failed to do so.
Soni is standing trial in the Pietermaritzburg High Court for Sewram’s murder, which occurred in May, 2013.
The State has alleged that Soni, who lives in the city, had Sewram killed after he discovered that Sewram and his wife, Kerusha Soni, were involved in an affair.
In his evidence, Soni said he had no choice but to pay policeman Sugen Naidoo, as he had threatened to have him arrested and his daughter taken away from him if he did not make the payments.
He admitted to paying large sums of money – between R2 000 and R20 000.
“At first I did not want to pay because I knew I had nothing to do with this. Then he threatened to arrest me in regard to my existing court order filed against me by my wife,” said Soni.
He testified that Sugen had refused to leave his property without being paid and had even gone there with a police van, signalling his intent to arrest Soni if he did not agree to his demands.
“He looked drugged up and was swearing loudly, which made my daughter cry.
“He had no sympathy for my daughter. I did not want to pay, but I also did not want to be arrested in front of my daughter.
“Luckily, my brother-in- law was there and was able to help me with Sugen’s demands,” staid Soni.
He further denied paying Naidoo to orchestrate a fake sexual harassment case against Sewram involving Sonali Khan.
Soni denied he had met Khan’s stepfather, saying he “did not know that these people even existed” until he finally saw the dockets.
He further admitted that he had indeed paid Naidoo R2 000 to open an assault case against Sewram.
“When Bhavish assaulted me, I was puzzled and questioned why he did it,” said Soni.
“I then discussed it with my family and decided to lay charges.”
He said that together with some of his relatives he met Naidoo at the Mountain Rise police station.
“Sugen told me that the charges would go nowhere without a significant fee being paid. We then paid him R2 000 and his expression changed. He said: ‘ You know what I’m going to do with this’,” said Soni.
His wife withdrew the protection order against him after these incidents and they reported Naidoo to the then Mountain Rise station commander, Brigadier Francis Bantham, he said. Naidoo never contacted him again after that.
Yesterday, Soni resumed giving evidence. He denied he had been involved in a paintball gun attack against Sewram.