Practitioner escapes prison in assault case

A dispensing optician convicted last month of actual bodily harm and making threats to kill has escaped a custodial prison term at sentencing at Croydon Crown Court.

Shashi Obhrai, of Northwood in Middlesex, received 18 months for assault and 20 months for making threats to kill. Both sentences were suspended for 20 months and she was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

Obhrai was convicted alongside Enkarta Balapovi and Shamina Yousuf in a high profile case in which a 39-year-old woman from Hyderabad, India was enslaved, raped and assaulted. Balapovi received 11 years in prison for rape and Yousuf was given a 40-hour community service order for actual bodily harm.