A family was recently sentenced to life imprisonment by the Port Shepstone High Court for murdering their nanny after they took out a R750 000 life insurance policy on her without her knowledge.

South Coast Herald reports that Amdhew Rishi Chuttergoon (49), his wife Managie Jessica Chuttergoon (50) and their daughter Tharushnie Trailene Naidoo (31) from Crossmoor in Chatsworth, KZN, orchestrated the killing of Rashree Dwarika (56) from Phoenix.

They had hired Dwarika to do housekeeping and nanny services.

On June 17, 2023, Southport SAPS attended to an inquest case of a drowning at a holiday home in Umzumbe. The deceased was identified as Dwarika. The Chuttergoons and Naidoo informed police that Dwarika had been trying to cut a fruit next to the swimming pool, fell in and drowned.

The investigating officer, Detective Warrant Officer Mark Manuel John, investigated and found it suspicious that an employer would take out life insurance on an employee.

On September 15, 2023, all three were arrested.

The trial started at Port Shepstone High Court on August 25, and the three have been sentenced to life in prison.

They pleaded not guilty, but Judge Garth Michael Harrison found the trio guilty. The sentences are as follows: Count one for murder (life imprisonment); count two for fraud (15 years) and count three for forgery and uttering (15 years).

They made an application to appeal their sentence and conviction on Monday last week, but it was denied.

“The case was built on circumstantial evidence. The only forensic evidence was voice recordings that were handed [in] by the insurance company, and then an independent company from Pretoria analysed the recordings and proved that Naidoo called the insurance company and pretended to be the deceased, who was alive at the time.

“The calls were to bring the policy activation date forward. The activation date was originally for July 1, 2023, but Naidoo called the insurance company and brought the date forward to June 1, 2023,” said John.

Dwarika’s family said that despite all the hardships she faced in her life, she never gave up. “She worked with dignity and cared for her children. She was a woman of strength; she was kind, trusting and generous. That trust was what the accused took advantage of,” said a family member.

“She was lured into a job through a fake advertisement and an insurance policy on her life was taken [out] without her knowledge. Her employers pretended to take her on a holiday and ended her life. It was a cold and calculated murder. The accused have shown no remorse. Despite all the evidence, they have continued to deny what they did. They have tried to protect themselves, while we live with the reality of this nightmare every day.”

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