R30m claim for Marburg man’s unlawful detention

THE family of Marburg businessman, Danny Pillay, aka ‘Heavy D’ who died last November after being unlawfully arrested and detained for 369 days, is suing the minister of police and the policeman who effected the arrest for R30-million.

According to a report in the Daily News, Mr Pillay was arrested in June 2010, on a charge of fraud. During his arrest, Mr Pillay requested to see a copy of the warrant for his arrest. The officer refused to produce the warrant, and told Pillay he should apply to court for a copy.

He spent 369 days in prison before the High Court ordered his release after finding the arrest and detention was unlawful and not in accordance with the Criminal Procedure Act.

In his judgment in 2011, Judge Phillip Nkosi found that, because he was not provided with a warrant for Mr Pillay’s arrest, the arrest did not comply with procedural requirements, and so the initial detention was unlawful.

Legal counsel for the minister of police also conceded before Judge Nkosi that Mr Pillay’s arrest was unlawful.

“An arrested person is entitled to question in public the lawfulness of his or her arrest,” said Nkosi, as reported by the Daily News.

When Mr Pillay was released, after spending more than a year in police custody, all criminal charges against him were withdrawn.

During an interview with the South Coast Herald in October 2011, Mr Pillay said during his detention he had been infected with TB, pneumonia and pleural effusion (fluid in the lungs) and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. At that time, after his release, Mr Pillay added that he intended suing the state.

His health deteriorated rapidly last year and he died last November at the age of 49.

Mr Pillay’s family is now suing the minister of police for R30-million in damages, claiming that the officer had breached his common law duty of care towards Mr Pillay, and was obstructive in regards to his attempts to be released from wrongful detention.

Speaking to the Daily News, his family said that, as a result, Mr Pillay suffered loss of freedom, embarrassment, humiliation, loss of earnings and life-threatening diseases.

The legal counsel for the minister of police is challenging the judgment and claimed in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Monday this week before Judge Isaac Madondo that there are more facts that need to be brought forward before the issue of damages can be argued.

Despite the concession by police in 2011 that Mr Pillay’s arrest was unlawful, the minister of police will now argue that the arrest was justified.

Legal counsel for Mr Pillay’s family, Fazel Moola, said police had already conceded that the arrest and detention were unlawful.

“They cannot come back to court now and deny it. As a matter of common sense and simple justice, the minister of police is liable to compensate Mr Pillay’s family.”