Having been cleared of charges of human trafficking, racketeering and running a brothel, Durban doctor Genchen Rugnath has confirmed he will be suing the State.
|||Durban - Having been cleared of charges of human trafficking, racketeering and running a brothel, Durban doctor Genchen (Robin) Rugnath and his wife, Ravina, have confirmed through their lawyer that they will be suing the State.
On Friday at a press briefing, the couple’s lawyer, Anand Nepaul, said his firm had received instructions to sue after his clients were found not guilty on all charges.
“It is a complicated assessment of damages, following four years of prosecution, trauma and adverse damage to reputation,” said Nepaul.
He said issues such as loss of income, hiring locums to keep the doctor’s practice doors open, loss of other businesses in which his clients had a share, and loss of other business opportunities would all have to be considered.
“To say this was a huge case is an understatement.
“My clients faced over 150 charges, ran the risk of life imprisonment and a fine of R100-million, plus the loss of their assets if found guilty,” said Nepaul.
The couple were acquitted, while Sandile Zweni, 37, Nonduzo Dlamini, 24, and Bhabha Dubazini, 29, were found guilty on a number of charges relating to the trafficking and prostitution operation they ran from the Inn Town Lodge, owned by the Rugnaths.
The lodge’s manager, Veena Budhram, who turned State witness, was labelled a “pathological liar” by Magistrate Simphiwe Hlope.
Zweni, Dlamini and Dubazini will be sentenced on May 9.
Budhram is also expected to return to court, where it will be determined if she will be charged.
Both Nepaul and advocate Jay Naidoo slammed the State's prosecution of the matter.
Naidoo said: “Unfortunately, we have to comment on the travesty this trial had become.”
He said their appeal to the State for dialogue “fell on deaf ears” from the beginning.
Nepaul highlighted that the matter had been the first major human-trafficking case to come before the courts in South Africa, and had received widespread national and international coverage in the media.
Independent on Saturday