EX-CPS lawyer told mother-in-law ‘I’ll cut your throat’
Magistrates find solicitor guilty of twice assaulting pensioner who criticised her housekeeping skills
A FORMER Crown Prosecution Service lawyer has been found guilty of assaulting her 69-year-old mother-in-law in a row over housework. Solicitor Anne Murgai, 42, pushed pensioner, Usha Kariholoo on to a sofa in the house they shared, telling her: “If you open your mouth I’ll cut your throat.”
Croydon magistrates’ court heard how the pair fell out when Mrs Kariholoo moved in with her son, Rakesh, and his wife.
They eventually clashed when the older woman criticised her daughterin-law’s housekeeping skills.
Giving evidence during a one-day trial, Mrs Kariholoo said: “She did not want me to come, she did not like my presence.” She went on: “I was not al- lowed to touch or feed the child and there were arguments between her and Rakesh, with her telling him, ‘You don’t do this, and you don’t do that.’
“I told her Rakesh is doing enough and she should help him. She was not working, she was sitting at home all day and did not like that I called her a housewife. Rakesh had two jobs at the time and she was telling him: ‘You don’t do the garden, you don’t do the toilets.’ I told her Rakesh is doing everything and she should also help and that it was very honourable to be a housewife, but that created a reaction.” The row eventually ended in violence last September when Murgai pushed her mother-in-law.
Mrs Kariholoo explained: “She came to me and said, ‘I’ll show you’ and pushed me three times and fortunately I fell on the sofa. She hit me two or three times on the shoulder and said: ‘I’ll kill you.’ I was shivering.”
The following day Mrs Kariholoo was hanging her son’s laundry in the back garden. She told the court: “She had a fist and I knew she was going to push me again, she tried to push me. She said: ‘I’ll show you,’ and came forward. If I fell on the ground I could have broken my head.”
Murgai told the court: “It’s a load of nonsense, it’s all lies.” She added: “That home was a toxic environment and Usha wants to control her son and married life. She sees her life as with Rakesh, she’s married to him.”
Murgai, who now lives on benefits, was convicted of both assaults and told to complete 80 hours of community service. She was placed on 12 months’ probation and must pay £200 costs and £100 compensation to Mrs Kariholoo.