A Tarneit woman jailed for manslaughter after helping her husband hide the body of her boss, has had her sentence appeal dismissed.
Kamna Ramjutton pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Supreme Court in December last year and was sentenced to eight years and six months’ jail for her role in the murder of the owner of the pizza shop at which she worked.
The court heard that the deceased went to the couple’s house on May 9, 2013, to collect takings from one of his pizza shops but most of the money had been gambled away earlier that day.
There was a physical altercation that ended with Ramjutton’s husband, Kritsingh Dookheea, strangling the man. He then dragged the body into a spare room before police arrived.
On August 6 this year, Ramjutton made an appeal to have her sentence reduced, claiming that her culpability should be reduced because she was “carried along” by her husband’s actions.
She claimed that she was “significantly less culpable than an ordinarily strong-willed individual who makes an independent decision to offend”.
The three justices dismissed her appeal on November 23.
“The crown submits that the appellant’s sentence of eight years and six months falls comfortably within the mid-range of sentences for manslaughter,” they wrote. “In our view, the offending is properly described as extremely serious. Although the sentence is towards the upper end of the range of sentences available, we consider the sentence to be well within a sound exercise of the sentencing discretion.”
Dookheea was sentenced to 19 years jail.
