The daughter of a late lawyer who once defended Princess Diana’s mum is locked in a legal battle with his Nepalese girlfriend over his home.
Ruben Murdanaigum, who ran legal firm Rubens Solicitors in Lochgilphead, Argyll, died last August aged 71. He had divorced his wife Felicity before moving girlfriend Ashma Sharma, 32, into his country home.
The pair are understood to have met when she was working as a barrister in Nepal. Following his death, his daughter Laura, who now lives in Edinburgh, wants Ashma to move out of the lawyer’s idyllic £500,000 home in Tayvallich, Argyll.
Ashma, who works as a legal adviser with Rubens Solicitors, has raised a civil action against Laura at Dunoon Sheriff Court in a bid to stay.
A source told the Sunday Mail: “Ruben didn’t leave a will so his estate goes to his daughter Laura and son Christopher. There is a court case in Dunoon Sheriff Court raised by Ashma, who had been living with Ruben for several years.
“Ashma wants to stay in the house but Laura, his daughter, maintains Ashma was just her father’s cleaner and housekeeper and wants her out. It’s very acrimonious. It’s an emotional time for everyone.”
A family source said: “I can’t say how widely known their relationship was in Lochgilphead but he used to take Ashma to the different courts, sometimes staying overnight in a hotel. So they would be seen quite a bit together.”
Mauritius-born Murdanaigum represented Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, on a drink-driving charge at Oban Sheriff Court in 1996. She was fined £400 and banned from driving for 12 months after being found guilty of being more than twice the legal limit of alcohol when she got behind the wheel.
Shand Kydd, who lived on Seil Island, died aged 68 in 2004. In 2019, Murdanaigum was found guilty of professional misconduct following a disciplinary tribunal in Edinburgh and was fined £2500.
He was accused of breaching strict accountancy rules for lawyers and mismanaging clients’ accounts. In August last year he is understood to have collapsed in the street in the town where he lived.
Passers-by tried to revive him until paramedics arrived but there was no response. It is understood the solicitor had previously suffered a heart attack. Previous reports say Murdanaigum grew up in poverty in Mauritius and did not own a pair of shoes until he was 12.
However, after coming to Scotland to work as a cleaner in a hospital, he studied nursing and later became a psychiatric nurse. Murdanaigum, who was fluent in English, French and Creole, went on to qualify in law and was admitted to the Law Society of Scotland in 1980.
Before setting up in private practice, he served for a time as a fiscal depute in Paisley. The Sunday Mail understands he owned a small estate in Barbados, where he planned to retire.
The case at Dunoon Sheriff Court has been halted to allow his estate to be wound up. A further hearing is set for June.
Ashma, and Murdanaigum’s ex-wife Felicity, declined to comment. The Sunday Mail contacted their legal representatives for comment.
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