NEWS
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Our granny is back home! B
ack home after a two week ordeal that included four days in a Delhi prison, all 62 year-old Ishara Devi Lutchman wanted to do was rest. She arrived at King Shaka International Airport from Delhi at 5.30 pm on Tuesday afternoon this week. Among those welcoming her home was an overjoyed Spaga Lutchman, her husband, who just days before had to be admitted to St Anne’s Hospital with a stressrelated heart attack induced by the traumatic episode. She had been allowed to leave India and return home after family and friends found a local person to stand as guarantor and raised the R70 000 required as surety by the Indian High Court before they would allow her to return to South Africa. She has to return to India
when the court formally files charges against her for contravening India’s Firearms Control Act. If she wins her case, the money will be refunded. The ordeal started just over two weeks ago when she and her travelling companions, her sister and brother-in-law, arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for a flight to Nepal to visit the Himalayas. As they were clearing through the airport to board the aircraft, airport security found a 9 mm round in her luggage. She was detained on charges of contravening India’s Arms Control Act and transferred to a female prison where she spent four days before being released on bail.
Men charged with murder denied bail Shivani Chetty hree men charged with the murder of a man near the 14 Steps Pub in Debi Place, had their bail applications successfully opposed at the Pietermaritzburg Magistrates Court on Monday this week. The case was adjourned so that details
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required by the court could be verified. The men were remanded in custody until the court case resumes on Thursday (6 March). The three suspects, who had allegedly beaten a man to death on 23 February, were arrested on 27 February. The magistrate said that there were insufficient grounds for the court to grant bail.
Last week Lutchman’s son, Colin, and family friend Rumen Maistry, who is a police captain and advocate, flew to India to support her in her “bizarre” legal battle protesting her innocence. Public Eye joined the fray on her
behalf and sent an urgent fax to the Indian Consul General, protesting the heavy-handed treatment meted out to her. Last week Friday, Rumen Maistry commented that the process had been lengthy but that
Tourism collaboration meeting
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irector of Msunduzi Pietermaritzburg Tourism, Dumisani Mhlongo met with Midlands Meander general manager and Karen Kohler, research manager for Tourism KZN Natal at the Tourism Hub on Wednesday afternoon. They were exploring collaborative projects and looking at ways of analysing tourism activities and changing trends in Pietermaritzburg and Midlands.
counsel in India had secured a court order to allow Lutchman to have her passport and luggage returned to her. The local community rallied around her throughout the ordeal, sending character references her employer, St Anne’s Hospital, colleagues, friends, and her family in support of her bail application. Spaga Lutchman expressed his joy that his wife was back home. He said that family is relieved to have her back home but are still concerned about her wellbeing. “When she came home, she didn’t even speak – she could not yet tell us what she has been through,” Spaga lamented.
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Public Eye March 07, 2014 - Page 5