Manilal's Death: More Details Emerge

At around seven o’clock in the morning on Thursday, December 7, eight Antwerp police officers raided the home of Indian diamantaire, Nikhil Manilal, in the Antwerp suburb of Wilrijk. The officers had a warrant to conduct a house search. At the time, Manilal was at home with his wife, Sujata, his father, and a number of servants. According to witnesses, Manilal, managing director of Beltaj NV, suffered a heart attack while reading the warrant, and collapsed.

The servants in the home said they had wanted to call Sujata and Nikhil's father when Manilal suffered his heart attack. The two family members were in a different part of the house. However, police prevented the servants from calling on the family, apparently, to preserve the “moment of surprise” when confronting her as part of the investigation.

Only when it became clear that the 46-year-old diamantaire had passed away, some ten to 15 minutes later, did police call an ambulance. A servant in the home who was at the scene had wanted to comfort the dying diamantaire but was prevented from doing so. Dominique Reyniers of the justice department in Antwerp denies the charges. He claimed that an ambulance was called within a minute or so after the diamantaire’s collapse. In the meantime, police have already changed their version of events a number of times.

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