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[Music] our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents if you feel at any time you need support
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please contact your local crisis center for suggested phone numbers for confidential support please see the show
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notes for this episode on your app or on our website in the late 2000s life was going well
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for 27 year old annie indocha the engineering graduate had a good job in stockholm
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at the headquarters of multinational telecommunications company ericsson and had recently purchased her
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own apartment with some help from her parents annie's close-knit hindu family were of
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indian heritage and had immigrated to the southern swedish town of mariastod before she was
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born although annie had moved away she returned to her family home often maintaining a close relationship with
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her father mother older sister and younger brother in 2009 annie's aunt who was the
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family's expert matchmaker introduced her to a young man named srian dawani 29 year old srien was two years older
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than annie and was from the english city of bristol like annie he had hindu parents and was
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one of three children with an older brother and a younger sister srian had an economics degree from
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manchester university and worked for his family's successful business running nursing homes
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throughout england's west country although annie and srian lived in different countries
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they soon struck up a long distance friendship during a visit to london annie went on
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her first date with srian they attended a west end performance of the lion king before having dinner at an upmarket
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fusion restaurant the couple had a wonderful time with shreyan particularly liking the way
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annie made him laugh despite the long distance their relationship blossomed over time
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in february 2010 annie decided to relocate to the united kingdom a move that would help develop her
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connection with treyan her father vinod and mother nalam gave her their blessing
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annie quit her job at ericsson and on march 1 she moved in with her cousin in luton a
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large town about 50 kilometers northwest of london shortly after the move annie called her parents to announce
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that things were going well with her and shreyan and that she had been welcomed by his
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family several weeks later vinod and traveled to the uk to meet shrien's parents
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it was a whirlwind to visit that included afternoon tea a tour of bristol and dinner at an
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indian restaurant by the end of the evening everyone agreed that the meeting had gone well
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on june 10 shreyan took annie to paris on a private jet after gifting annie a designer dress and
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christian dior shoes shreyan took her out for dinner at the ritz hotel instead of dessert annie was presented
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with a diamond engagement ring worth 25 000 pounds the couple began planning their wedding
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they initially wanted to get married in dubai but after an impromptu visit to india
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they fell in love with mumbai and decided to have the wedding there instead annie and srian planned to have four
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traditional hindu ceremonies but because these wouldn't be legally binding they would make the marriage
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official at a uk registry office after their honeymoon on thursday october 28 2010
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the wedding festivities began at mumbai's renaissance hotel the lavish celebrations lasted for three
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days costing the hinduja and dawani families around 200 000 pounds altogether the wedding concluded on saturday
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october 30 with a reception held by the dawanis photos captured the newlyweds beaming
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with annie dressed in a blue and green sari and srian wearing a silver outfit with a
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scarf that complemented his bride's clothing after the reception the couple farewelled their loved ones
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with annie and her family weeping as they said their goodbyes [Music] shreyan had intended for their honeymoon
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destination to be a surprise but before he could tell any where they were going his mother let it slip that he had
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booked a trip to south africa [Music] [Music] annie and srian arrived in south africa
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on tuesday november 9 2010 and immediately travelled to the chitwa chitwa game lodge a luxury five-star resort
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located inside kruger national park the couple spent three days visiting the park's feigned sites and animals
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on friday november 12 annie and shreem caught a flight from johannesburg to cape town where they would spend
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the remainder of their holiday cape town is the second largest city in south africa
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located on a peninsula in the country's south western corner today it's known for its busy harbour
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white sand beaches and the imposing table mountain that looms nearby tourists can ride cable cars to the top
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of the mountain or travel a short distance to visit the world famous wineries just outside of
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the city despite cape town's natural beauty and popularity with the wealthy travelers
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it has a complicated history and is also home to significant poverty and inequality as a result of the group
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areas act of 1950 non-white citizens of south africa were prohibited from living in the municipal
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limits of any of the country's cities all people of color in cape town were forced out of the city's established
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neighborhoods on the slopes of table mountain and into the cape flats a sandy barren
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stretch of land on the city's outskirts where they established their own makeshift townships
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some managed to build themselves brick bungalows on the tiny plots but most residents who lived below the
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poverty line were forced to live in densely packed squatter camps that lacked electricity
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running water or sewage systems over the years the cape flats population grew beyond
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that inside cape town's municipal city limits and the area gained notoriety for being
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the dumping ground of the apartheid when the south african apartheid ended in the early 1990s
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residents of the cape flats were no longer restricted by segregation laws but many remained bound to the area by
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language history economics and ethnic politics cape town's international airport is
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located in the middle of the cape flats visitors to the city travel along the n2
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highway which passes by the sprawling shanty townships to reach cape town's wealthy center
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upon arriving at cape town airport annie and srian exited the arrivals hall to look for a taxi to take them to their
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accommodation the cape grace hotel shreyan found a friendly young taxi driver named zola tongo
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who worked full time as a limousine driver for a local tour company but used his own vehicle to shuttle
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passengers in his spare time tongo loaded the newlyweds into their luggage into his grey volkswagen charan
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minivan and drove them the 20-minute journey to their hotel there he gave them his phone number in
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case they wanted to use his services again after checking in shreyan and annie had
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a drink at the hotel bar followed by dinner at a fancy restaurant located a short walk away
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the next day they spent most of their time relaxing by the hotel pool before getting ready for dinner at 96
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winery road an upmarket restaurant located in the heldeberg valley wine region about 50 kilometers east of cape town
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srihan called taxi driver zola tongo whom the couple had liked to arrange for him to take them to dinner
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annie dressed up for the occasion wearing a black dress a shawl and black and silver high heels
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she carried her blackberry phone in a small purse and wore a giorgio armani wristwatch a
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white gold and diamond bracelet and her diamond engagement ring shreyan dressed in a dark suit with a
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white shirt tongo collected the couple and took them on a brief tour of the city at night
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before heading on to the n2 highway towards the 96 winery road restaurant as they drove annie and srian decided
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they didn't feel like eating a large lavish meal so tongo suggested they try the surfside restaurant
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an asian inspired eatery in the nearby beach resort town of strand the couple agreed and tongo dropped them
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there at 9 30 p.m annie and sri and dined on curry and sushi with shreyan calling tongo half an hour
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later to request a pickup in 20 minutes by 10 15 pm the couple were back in tongo's minivan
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returning to cape town along the n2 highway approximately one hour later at 11 12
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p.m a 33 year old government employee named symbol nilay madakazi was returning to
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his home near the cape flats township of kyliecha symbonile had driven a friend to the
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airport and was pulling into his garage when he noticed a stranger dressed neatly in a dark suit standing on his
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doorstep as visitors to the area were rare symbonile was baffled by the man's presence
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the stranger approached symbol nearly and said excuse me is there a nearby police
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station where i can report a hijack because my wife and i were hijacked the man identified himself as sri and
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dewani and symbonile placed a call to the police on his behalf as symbonile spoke to the dispatcher he
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asked srian for further information such as the location of the vehicle and its make and
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model srian was unable to provide any answers he paced back and forth outside simbonile's garage crying
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softly until the police arrived 15 minutes later srien regained his composure and
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explained that his wife had suggested taking a detour through the cape flats as the area around their hotel felt too
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similar to her home in sweden and she wanted to see quote the real africa the tourism industry offered visitors
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official township tours through gugulettu the largest of the cake flats townships
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accompanied by a guide tourists would meet locals see historical sites and eat at a
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barbecue shack named mazzoli's which was made famous in 2009 when celebrity chef jamie oliver dined
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there and described the food as heaven tours of gugulettu only operated during the day
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as the area was plagued by violent crimes at night including rapes assaults carjackings
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home invasions and murders which occurred approximately every two and a half days
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despite this the daytime tours were considered safe as no major crimes had ever been
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committed against tourists although the area was known to be dangerous after dark
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annie and srian's taxi driver had agreed to take them on a late night tour of gugulettu
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according to srian as they were passing the international airport tongo's minivan exited the n2
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highway first turning left and then turning right onto cliff fontaine road one of the main thoroughfares through
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the guga latu township they then drove past the gugulettu cemetery before making a few turns to drive past
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mazzoli's the barbecue restaurant made famous by jamie oliver at that point it was almost 11 pm and
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the streets were quiet then just as tongo was about to turn right back onto clip fontaine road
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a man left out and violently banged a handgun against the minivan windscreen another man suddenly opened the driver's
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door and forced tongo out of the vehicle and into the back where the couple was sitting the man
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then jumped behind the wheel while the carjacker with the gun took the front passenger seat
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as they sped off down the road annie began to scream and cry shreyan attempted to shield her with his
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body but the gun-wielding carjacker pressed the weapon against srien's temple and stole his watch which
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was valued at two thousand pounds shreyan also handed over between five and six thousand
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south african rand in cash or the equivalent of four to five hundred australian dollars
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annie was forced to hand over her giorgio armani watch and white gold diamond bracelet
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after handing over their valuables sri and begged the carjackers to let him and his wife
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go a distraught annie spoke in the indian language of gujarati to let him know that she had hidden her
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engagement and wedding rings shreyan attempted to hide his mobile phone in his trousers
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so he could later call for help but one of the carjackers noticed and confiscated the device
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the carjacker then held his gun to sriel's temple and stated lie to me again and i will kill you both
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the driver continued north for several minutes before pulling over to the side of the
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road and forcing tongo out of the van with the newly weds still inside the driver then continued down the
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street at high speed smashing over speed bumps and swerving erratically the faster he drove the louder annie
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screamed the carjackers took annie and shreyan back onto the n2 highway and headed away from cape town deeper
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into the cape flats after about seven minutes they exited the highway at baden-powell
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drive and headed into the kyliece township the armed carjacker continued to press
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his weapon against srian's head but assured him they had no intention of harming the couple
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and only wanted the minivan srian clung to annie and repeatedly begged to be released
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approximately 20 minutes after the carjackers had thrown tongo out of the van srien was forced at
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gunpoint to climb out the back passenger window of the moving vehicle leaving his wife behind
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he found himself nearly 20 kilometers from where tongo had been ejected srian stumbled along for about 300
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meters until he came to an intersection the streets were quiet so he knocked on doors
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looking for help which is when he encountered simbonile matakazi [Music] shreyan was driven back to the cape
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grace hotel by the police while a search was initiated for the minivan at the hotel shreyan phoned his family
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in the uk to inform them what had happened and that annie was still missing [Music]
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soon after another police car arrived at the hotel carrying tongo the carjackers had left
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the taxi driver approximately one kilometer from the gugulettu police station and he had made his way there on foot to
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report the carjacking tongo told police he couldn't remember the names of his passengers
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but knew they were staying at the cape grace hotel so the officers had driven him there in
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a bid to find out more information shortly after midnight on sunday november 14 14.
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shreyan's father prakash dawani called the hinduja household in sweden to inform them what had happened
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annie's father vanod asked for more information but prakash said he knew nothing else
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and would call back when he did through tears annie's mother nalam told her husband
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annie is never coming back the nod immediately began making plans to travel to cape town
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he was looking into flights when srian called sobbing as he told his father-in-law
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sorry dad i could not take care of your daughter this was followed by another call from
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srian's father telling venod he had found flights leaving from amsterdam to cape town later that
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morning both men planned to fly to amsterdam and to then board the flight to cape town
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together at 6 00 a.m vinod boarded a two-hour flight to amsterdam from the swedish
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city of gothenburg this was incredibly difficult for him as he was out of contact with his family
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for the entire duration when vinod finally landed in amsterdam he found a pay phone
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and called his brother ashok he heard crying and wailing followed by ashok stating
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they shot annie earlier that morning in cape town the police had received a call from a
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resident of the lita park township not far from where srien had been forced to exit the minivan
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the resident had noticed a grey volkswagen minivan parked adjacent to an empty weed covered
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field the vehicle was an unusual sight in the area and curious neighbours had peered through
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the windows and noticed there was a body inside at 8am police had arrived at the scene
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and immediately noticed that blood had seeped out of the rear right-hand door of the minivan and was pooling on
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the asphalt below they opened the door and found annie hindoche's body sprawled on her back
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across the blood-stained back seat with what appeared to be a bullet wound in her neck
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a bullet was lodged in the back of the rear right seat and gunpowder residue was found in
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various parts of the minivan beneath annie's body officers found her wedding and engagement rings
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stuffed into the small gap between the seats annie had been killed by a single gunshot fired at close range
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between 5 and 10 centimeters away the bullet had entered annie's neck and had grazed her hand along the way
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indicating she had been in a defensive position at the time of her death although there were no signs of sexual
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assault marks from someone's right hand were found on her lower left leg a pathologist report concluded that
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annie's death had occurred in a matter of heartbeats a 21 year old student who lived less
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than 100 meters from the spot where annie's body was discovered later came forward to contradict the
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findings that annie hadn't been sexually assaulted she said she had gone to look at the
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minivan when the police arrived and had been standing just five meters away when officers opened
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the vehicle door the student claimed that annie's head was by the door and her knees were bent up with both
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legs apart her dress appeared to have been pulled up around her waist and her underwear had been dragged down
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below her knees the student told the telegraph newspaper quote it looked to me very strongly that they had done
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something to her i couldn't say if they raped her but she had definitely been attacked
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that i am sure about cape town police denied that annie had been found in such a state
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the crime was described by cape town's mayor as a blow to all capetonians and south africans
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while tourism officials urged visitors to be vigilant and only travel with tour guides
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local taxi drivers queried why zola tongo had taken his passengers to such a dangerous part of the
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city so late at night with one telling the media it is a dangerous place at night and
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every driver would know did he get lost because if he was it was the wrong place to be
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annie's father vinod and father-in-law prakash arrived in cape town at 9 00 pm on the
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day her body was found with vanard having cried throughout the entire 12-hour flight from amsterdam
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they were met at the airport by officials from the swedish and british consulate
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who drove them to the cape grace hotel where srien was waiting the nod was struck by sri and strength
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and how he was able to hold himself together in public when venard himself couldn't stop crying
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the following afternoon of monday november 15 the police took venod to see annie
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he thought it looked as though she was sleeping peacefully and might wake up at any moment
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vernod kissed his daughter's forehead told her that he loved her and stated papa is here
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papa is here i'm so sorry i have come to take you home the arrangements to transport annie's
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body back to the uk were made quickly and vernod srien and prakash were scheduled to fly home
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the following day on tuesday november 16 the three men sat in the hotel reception waiting until
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it was time to go to the airport vernod noticed that srian spent the majority of the time on his laptop or
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phone disappearing once for about 10 minutes with an envelope in the newspaper when they flew home that afternoon
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shreyan slept for a majority of the flight leaving venod without the chance to speak to him about what happened
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in total 25 fingerprints were found throughout zola tongo's minivan and were scanned
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through the south african police service's automated fingerprint identification system
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a left palm print on the right front fender returned ten possible matches which were manually
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compared to the original resulting in a positive id 26 year old unemployed labourer corleele
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mongeni had been arrested five years earlier in 2005 on suspicion of killing a man in a bar
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fight the charges against him were later dropped on the morning of tuesday november 16
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investigators tracked mongenie down to a shack located just a few hundred meters from
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where zola tongo's minivan had been abandoned mangini had spent the previous night
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partying with friends and was found asleep in a bed with three other people police woke monkey and read him his
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riots before placing him under arrest and conducting a search of the shark stuffed between the bed's mattress and
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its frame they found a nokia mobile phone when asked who owned the phone mongenie
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replied it belongs to the taxi driver hidden inside the shack's roof police discovered annie's giorgio armani watch
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and white gold bracelet mungeni was taken in for questioning and soon admitted to being present for the
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carjacking and murder of any hinduja he denied being responsible for annie's death
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instead placing the blame on a man named umziwa madoda kwabe mongini agreed to accompany the officers
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to various scenes of the crime and talk them through the events he pointed out the locations where the
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minivan had been hijacked where zola tongo and sri and dawani had been ejected and where stolen items had been hidden
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the police then drove mongini through the kailicha township in an attempt to track down his alleged
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accomplice dota cuave but were unable to locate him [Music] afterwards mongini was taken to the
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holding cells at the directorate for priority crime investigation in belleville two days later on thursday november 18
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police located alleged gunman umziwa madoda kwabe the 27 year old married father of three
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had no criminal record but was known within the kailicha township as being a small-time drug
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dealer police took kwabe in for questioning where he quickly confessed to his involvement
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in the fatal carjacking he also revealed the location of a 7.62 millimeter norinco
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pistol he had since offloaded to a friend and a drain where he had disposed of the
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cartridge from the bullet that had killed annie hindocha police were able to recover both items
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and confirm kwabe's pistol to be the murder weapon despite confessing to a number of
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aspects relating to the crime kwabe insisted that he hadn't shot annie and that it was his accomplice kolile
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mongeni who had killed her in a surprising twist cuabe claimed that he and mongani had
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been recruited to carry out the crime by a man named monday and blombo and the taxi driver who had been escorting
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the foreign couple throughout the city zola tongo thirty-one-year-old monday and blombo
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worked at the reception desk of a luxury hotel called the protea coliseum hotel he and cuabae had first met a decade
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earlier when they were both working with an educational project for youths from the cape flats townships
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the two men had fallen out of touch in 2006 but suddenly bumped into one another
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again on november 1 2010 they chatted for a while and exchanged phone numbers with kwabe
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instructing him blombo to call him if anyone was ever bothering him almost two weeks later on friday
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november 12 cuabae claimed mblambo had called to say he had a job that needed to be done and
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subsequently put quabe in contact with tongo on thursday november 18 police tracked
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monday mblambo down and placed him under arrest he quickly confessed to his involvement
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with the carjacking and investigators then turned their attention to zola tongo who they initially believed to have been
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a victim of the crime that same day tongo retained the services of a lawyer claiming he did so out of fear that the
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police planned to assault him on saturday november 20 under advice from his lawyer
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tongo handed himself in meanwhile shree and dawani had requested that his wife's funeral be held in
00:32:05
england so that his family and friends could attend and the hindujas agreed in the lead-up to the event several of
00:32:15
annie's loved ones noted that shreyan was behaving strangely her father vinod had noticed the
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peculiar behavior since cape town where shreyan had displayed little grief for tears over annie's death
00:32:30
and didn't voice a desire for his wife's killers to be caught instead shreyan had spent almost all of
00:32:37
his time either on his laptop or mobile phone the day before annie's funeral shreyan
00:32:45
informed the hindutchers that a pizza party would be held in annie's honor that night
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which offended vinod another clash also occurred at the funeral home hindu custom dictates that
00:33:00
only women can dress the body of a deceased female so annie's sister ami and her cousin
00:33:06
sneha planned to undertake this role annie had been particularly close to snayer who was just
00:33:14
one year younger than her the pair were best friends since childhood and when annie moved
00:33:21
to the uk she had lived with snail when snail and dummy arrived to dress annie in preparation for her funeral srien was
00:33:33
already there with his mother and aunt which was highly unusual during the dressing process shreyan
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threw a temper tantrum shocking even his own relatives annie's parents had hoped to spend a few
00:33:50
moments alone with annie before her funeral but when ami asked shreyan if this was
00:33:56
possible he refused ami later addressed the matter with the funeral director who said that hindujas were welcome to
00:34:05
visit annie's body 30 minutes prior to the ceremony at 9 30 a.m on the day of the funeral a
00:34:14
number of annie's relatives arrived to place letters they had written inside her coffin and the family then
00:34:20
held hands around her taking it in turns to offer blessings annie was vinod and nilam's second child
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born between eldest daughter army and a son anash in their hindu faith all women were
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considered to be the embodiment of the goddess lakshmi as such vinod and nilam considered annie a blessing
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she followed in her father's footsteps by pursuing a career in engineering and took a break from her studies in
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2006 to take care of her mother after she was diagnosed with cancer as annie's parents and sister were
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saying their final farewells shreyan suddenly burst in shouting what are you guys doing you are not
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allowed to do this an argument ensued until shrine's brother forced him to leave
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but there wasn't enough time left for ami to say goodbye to her sister more than 150 mourners attended the
00:35:29
service during which annie's family noticed that the letters they had placed in her
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coffin had been thrown onto the floor it took some convincing to get shreen to agree to return them
00:35:44
a second memorial service was scheduled for the following day but hostilities between shreyan and the
00:35:50
hindujas continued when shreyan threatened to cancel the event he later agreed to let it proceed on the
00:35:59
condition that army not be allowed to address the mourners as he was upset by her behavior at the
00:36:06
funeral on sunday november 21 annie's family were informed that in addition to the
00:36:15
arrests of mongeni cuabe and dumblambo taxi driver zola tongo had also been detained
00:36:24
that same day shreyan's brother prayan phoned vinod urging him not to make the text messages that annie had sent to
00:36:33
sneha public vinod had no idea what prayen was referring to and was left baffled by the call
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later that day an article in the independent newspaper quoted a south african police source as
00:36:50
saying there would soon be an explosive revelation in the case following annie's funeral srien hired
00:37:02
the services of renowned british publicist max clifford who had previously represented
00:37:08
high-profile clients including former nfl athlete and convicted felon oj simpson television personality
00:37:16
and record executive simon cowell and english stand-up comedian freddie starr on monday november 22 it was requested
00:37:27
that annie's father vinod attend a meeting at max clifford's office srian wasn't present for the meeting but
00:37:35
his brother prayen was prayen recorded the meeting on his mobile phone during which he asked vinod such
00:37:44
questions as do you like your son-in-law vinod found the entire experience to be
00:37:52
strange and absurd the next day of tuesday november 23 the promised explosive revelation in
00:38:02
annie's murder investigation was published in a number of english newspapers according to reports umziwa madoda cuave
00:38:12
had told cape town police that he and kolile mongeni had been hired because quote there was a husband who
00:38:20
wanted his wife to be killed almost immediately after srian's possible involvement was made public
00:38:30
an article ran in tabloid newspaper the daily mail with the headline father of shot bride
00:38:38
i love srian like a son it was clear to vinod that his recorded conversation with prayen had been used
00:38:47
for the piece srian defended himself publicly telling the sun newspaper i searched high and low for my
00:38:58
perfect partner annie was the one her looks her laughter her personality her spirit everything
00:39:06
about her was right for me why would i want to kill her people who suggest this could not have
00:39:14
seen us together saying i was somehow involved defies logic annie wasn't on any life insurance
00:39:23
policies and we hadn't even made a will i had no motive financial or otherwise i loved her
00:39:31
and still loved her srien also amended some of the details he had previously provided about the
00:39:39
night of the carjacking while he had initially told police that it was annie's idea to visit the cape
00:39:46
flats he now claimed that it had been tongo's suggestion explaining we were on our way home to
00:39:54
our hotel when our driver asked whether we'd like to see some african dancing on our way
00:40:01
it was late and we were hugging each other on the back seat and going through photographs from the
00:40:06
safari trip we'd just been on we weren't really thinking of anything but each other
00:40:12
and sort of said whatever although srian had told police that he'd been forced out of the window of the
00:40:22
moving van 20 minutes after zola tongo was ejected he told the sun that the vehicle had
00:40:29
actually pulled over more like 40 minutes after tongo's release when the carjackers realised the child
00:40:37
locks were activated and the back doors couldn't be opened he had been dragged out of the window
00:40:43
kicking and screaming shreem claimed he was then thrown on the ground and could do nothing but look on
00:40:51
helplessly as the minivan disappeared with his wife inside annie's parents had long harboured
00:41:02
concerns about their daughter's relationship with srian beginning with the couple's engagement
00:41:09
when vinod and nalam were leaving bristol after their initial meeting with srian's
00:41:14
family the duwanis had presented them with a large silver dish known as atari which was stuffed with
00:41:22
fruits and nuts and had a bronze statue of ganesh in the middle in hindu culture this gift is
00:41:30
traditionally presented to symbolise an engagement agreement between two parties
00:41:37
vinod was confused about the gift as he had only met srian twice and would have preferred if the young
00:41:43
man had approached in the traditional way he would have also liked to have spoken
00:41:49
with annie first to see what she wanted not wanting to offend the dewanis he and
00:41:56
nalam accepted the gift and departed for the airport annie had been equally caught off guard
00:42:04
and spent weeks deliberating over what to do finally in early may she decided that
00:42:12
she did want to marry shreyan after her final wedding reception annie had told her parents that she had been
00:42:20
trying to convince shrien to take her to the indian state of kerala for their honeymoon
00:42:26
so his choice of south africa had seemed strange when shreyan had been implicated in
00:42:33
annie's murder annie's best friend and cousin snaya revealed to the hindujas that annie and
00:42:40
srian had been having relationship problems for some time she claimed that during
00:42:46
the months they were in mumbai planning their wedding they had started arguing frequently
00:42:53
annie had accused shreem of being possessive and controlling and in turn shreyan had consistently
00:43:00
reprimanded her over minor issues such as how she placed her dirty clothing in the laundry basket prior to the
00:43:09
couple's engagement some of annie's family members were told that srien had health problems
00:43:15
and was receiving hormone treatments for infertility however sneha told the hindujas that
00:43:22
annie suspected this was a lie constructed by srien to deflect from the fact that he had no sexual interest in her
00:43:31
since the beginning of their relationship they had slept in separate beds leading annie to worry that srien didn't
00:43:39
find her attractive according to sneha annie had repeatedly confided that she regretted getting
00:43:47
engaged to shrien and had tried to call off the wedding on three occasions each time shreen had persuaded her to
00:43:55
change her mind annie expressed concern that she wouldn't find another partner and felt pressured by the amount of
00:44:04
money her parents had already spent shortly before the wedding she sent snayer a text message
00:44:12
that read i don't want to marry him i'm going to be unhappy for the rest of my life
00:44:19
one cannot even hug him we have nothing in common when the wedding ceremonies were
00:44:27
underway annie told sneyer that she and shreyan had decided to act happy even though they weren't he showed no
00:44:36
signs of returning to the funny and loving person he was when they first met instead criticizing annie's
00:44:43
appearance and saying that one of her sarees didn't look very proper and he hoped shreyan's behaviour would
00:44:52
improve after the wedding and agreed to snayer's suggestion to get a divorce if it didn't when annie learned
00:45:00
that srian would be taking her to south africa for their honeymoon she sent a text message to snayer that
00:45:07
read i don't want to go anywhere with him sneya had urged dany to go in an attempt
00:45:15
to resolve the couple's issues and offered to send her money for a flight home if she was still unhappy
00:45:22
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r best fiends in early december vinod hindorcha received a phone call from south african
00:52:03
police requesting that he returned to cape town as a matter of urgency upon his arrival
00:52:11
investigators revealed that due to admissions made by taxi driver zola tongo they had
00:52:17
reason to believe that srien had indeed orchestrated annie's murder according to tongo when he first picked
00:52:26
the couple up from the cape town airport and dropped them at the cape grace hotel
00:52:32
annie went inside to the hotel lobby srien stayed behind and asked tongo if he knew anyone who
00:52:40
could help him take a client off the scene the pair had a brief conversation in which shreyan said he wanted to kill a
00:52:49
woman who was arriving later that evening he was willing to pay a hit man fifteen
00:52:56
thousand rand or the equivalent of 2185 australian dollars at the time in addition to paying a 5 000
00:53:05
rand finders fee to tongo he also offered to pay using american dollars if that was preferable
00:53:16
although tongo had virtually no criminal record with the exception of one conviction for
00:53:22
driving without a taxi permit he had agreed to put shreen in touch with someone who could commit the crime
00:53:30
investigators checked security footage captured outside the hotel and confirmed that srian had spoken with
00:53:37
tongo during this time period while lani waited at the lobby's check-in desk shreyan then went inside to join his
00:53:46
wife but soon came back outside where he spoke to tongo for a further nine minutes
00:53:55
tongo claimed that after leaving the cape grace he called the protea coliseum hotel
00:54:01
where his friend monday mblambo worked at the reception desk cctv footage showed blumbo had answered
00:54:10
the call followed by tongo's arrival at the protea coliseum approximately 25 minutes later
00:54:18
there tongo greeted him blombo by placing both hands on top of his head a gesture that indicated cause for
00:54:26
celebration and the two left to speak together according to tongo he had informed him
00:54:35
blombo of shreen's request and dumb blumbo said he knew a suitable person who could
00:54:41
carry out the crime the conversation lasted just two and a half minutes then blombo put tongo in touch with his
00:54:50
old friend umziwa madoda kwabe that evening tongo had phoned kwabe to ask if he could do the job
00:55:01
kwabe was with his friend kolile mungeni when the call came through and the two men agreed to
00:55:08
participate in the plot [Music] the same night that tongo conspired with kwabe annie and srien had dined at a
00:55:20
waterfront restaurant located a short walk from their hotel a waitress told investigators that she had approached
00:55:29
the couple's table at around 9 20 pm annie was sitting there alone and explained that her husband had
00:55:37
left to make a business call cctv footage from this time captured shreyan walking the short distance
00:55:45
back to the couple's hotel room where he had left his mobile phone his phone records revealed that he had
00:55:53
received a text message from tongo though its contents are unknown srian called tongo and the pair spoke
00:56:02
for five minutes and 26 seconds tongo told investigators that during the call he updated srian on the progress of the
00:56:12
hit and confirmed that the hitmen wished to be paid in rand he then agreed to help sri and exchange
00:56:19
some u.s currency into south african rand the following day at 11 56 a.m on saturday november 13
00:56:30
cctv footage from the cape grace hotel captured tongo picking shreyan up in his minivan
00:56:39
the pair then drove to a jewelry store called golden touch jewellers where shreyan exchanged 1500 us
00:56:46
dollars for 10 200 rand police later confirmed this exchange with the store's owner
00:56:57
tongo told investigators that on the drive back to the hotel he and srian discussed the plans for the
00:57:04
murder and determined the order in which the two of them would be released from the
00:57:09
hijacked minivan with this new information from tongo south african authorities intended to prosecute srian for annie's
00:57:19
murder they asked dany's father vinod whether he would agree to a plea deal for tongo
00:57:26
in which he would plead guilty and testify against shreyan in exchange for a reduced
00:57:32
sentence vinod agonised over the decision he believed that if tongo was responsible for hiring the man who
00:57:43
killed his daughter then he deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison however after much consideration
00:57:52
vinod agreed to the request and tongo's plea deal was formalized on december 5 2010
00:58:02
on tuesday december 7 zalatongo appeared in the western cape high court to make his plea
00:58:09
stating i knew that mungeni and kwabe would not harm shree and dawani and that he would be dropped off at some
00:58:18
further point i also knew that the deceased would be kidnapped robbed and murdered by kwabe and mongani
00:58:28
tongo pleaded guilty to kidnapping robbery with aggravating circumstances murder and obstructing the
00:58:35
administration of justice as per his agreed plea deal he was sentenced to 18 years in prison immediately after
00:58:50
tongo's testimony the south african police service forwarded an arrest warrant for shri and
00:58:56
dawani to the foreign assistance division of scotland yard in london word about the warrant reached
00:59:04
shrane at his family home and by the end of the day he handed himself in to police
00:59:10
and was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder three days later shreyan appeared in the
00:59:18
united kingdom's high court he was granted bail on the condition that he wear an electronic
00:59:25
tag comply with the curfew and report daily to police pending extradition hearings which were
00:59:32
scheduled for early 2011. srian maintained his innocence with his lawyer issuing a public statement that
00:59:41
read my client is devastated by annie's murder and the false allegations that have been
00:59:48
made against him and welcomes the chance to clear his name through the courts shriyan's arrest was major news in south
00:59:59
africa where the nation's media accused him of trying to exploit the country's higher murder rate by having
01:00:05
his wife killed there almost six months earlier south africa had hosted the world's most prestigious
01:00:13
international soccer competition the fifa world cup prompting over three hundred thousand
01:00:20
tourists to flock to the country annie's murder reignited old concerns that south africa would
01:00:28
be perceived by foreigners as a dangerous place some of the nation's public figures
01:00:34
shared their concerns with a representative from the congress of south african trade unions
01:00:40
stating annie hinduja's murder appears to have been planned on the assumption that hijacking and murder
01:00:48
are believed to be so commonplace that it would be easy to stage a murder and then claim it was another normal
01:00:56
criminal act on wednesday december 15 another twist in the case emerged when a german man who lived in england's
01:01:07
midlands region came forward claiming to have had sex with sri and dewani on three separate occasions
01:01:15
leopold eliza a 39 year old sex worker known as the german master alleged that srian had paid him
01:01:24
1100 pounds in cash for his services between september 2009 and april 2010 one month before srian and dany got
01:01:34
engaged according to leopold shreen had told him about his forthcoming wedding to annie
01:01:43
stating that although she was a nice girl he needed to quote find a way out shreen was worried that his family would
01:01:53
disown him if he called off the wedding these allegations led to speculation that srien's sexuality could have
01:02:02
motivated him to order annie's murder his lawyer labelled leopold's claims as completely false and ridiculous and his
01:02:12
publicist max clifford stated sri and dewani has never had a sexual relationship with a
01:02:19
man in his life in cape town prosecutors negotiated with the suspects they already had in custody
01:02:31
and struck a plea deal with one of the two accused carjackers umzi wama doda kwabe
01:02:38
kwabe had initially pleaded not guilty to annie's murder claiming he hadn't been the one who shot
01:02:45
her he changed his mind upon learning that under south african law being a co-conspirator to the crimes he
01:02:53
had already confessed to made him equally guilty of annie's murder in exchange for a reduced sentence of 25
01:03:02
years with a 17-year minimum quabe agreed to testify against shreyan and plead guilty to charges of
01:03:10
kidnapping illegal possession of a firearm robbery with aggravating circumstances
01:03:16
and murder cuabe confessed that on november 12 2010 he received a phone call from his old friend
01:03:26
monday mblambo who said that a job needed to be done he then spoke directly with zola tongo
01:03:35
who explained that someone had ordered a hit and cuabae subsequently recruited his
01:03:41
friend kolile mongeni to help the following day the trio met up and tongo told kwabe and mongani
01:03:51
that a husband wanted his wife killed in a staged hijacking in exchange for 1500 rand
01:03:59
they agreed that the husband would be unharmed and that the wife would be kidnapped
01:04:05
robbed and killed payment for the hit was to be left inside the glove box of the minivan
01:04:14
cuave told investigators that during the course of the hijacking he drove the minivan while mangini sat
01:04:22
in the front passenger seat brandishing the gun after robbing the newlyweds and forcing tongo and shreyan from the
01:04:30
vehicle mongenie shot and killed annie from the front passenger seat cuabei and mongeni then dumped the car
01:04:39
and kwabe gave the gun to a friend for safe keeping monday blombo confessed to acting as an
01:04:48
intermediary between tongo and kwabe but prosecutors believed his role had been minimal and therefore he wasn't charged
01:04:56
with any crime instead blombo was offered immunity in exchange for testifying at srian's
01:05:05
trial as well as that of kolilei mongani the only one of the south african suspects
01:05:11
who had refused the plea deal and elected to plead not guilty meanwhile in england proceedings were
01:05:21
underway to determine whether sri and dewani would have to return to south africa
01:05:25
to face the accusations levelled against him south african authorities argued that
01:05:31
srian's alleged involvement in the crime explained why he had employed a local taxi driver
01:05:37
instead of using his hotel's airport shuttle service and also explained how he had escaped
01:05:43
from the hijackers unscathed in response shreyan supporters stated it was ludicrous to believe
01:05:51
he had asked the first person he met in cape town to kill his wife a preliminary extradition hearing was
01:06:00
initially scheduled for february 2011. but srian failed to appear citing mental illness
01:06:09
the court was told that he had consumed 46 different pills though sran's doctor denied this had
01:06:16
been a suicide attempt two months later on april 20 2011 shreyan was detained at a bristol
01:06:25
psychiatric hospital under the mental health act his defence team continued to fight the extradition
01:06:31
process claiming that their client was mentally unfit to stand trial they also argued that srien would
01:06:39
face a violent sexual assault under the risk of hiv infection in a south african prison
01:06:47
nevertheless on august 10 2011 british judge howard riddle ruled that sri and should be extradited
01:06:55
stating that he had confidence in the south african justice system the paperwork was sent to the uk's
01:07:02
immigration minister and then home secretary theresa may for final approval the hinduja family presented a petition
01:07:12
featuring more than 11 000 signatures to theresa may urging her to agree to the extradition
01:07:20
on september 28 2011 may agreed that the extradition order was valid and that srien should be sent to
01:07:28
cape town despite south african officials making assurances that srien's health would be protected his legal team
01:07:37
continued to insist he was not mentally fit to make the journey ultimately england's high court agreed
01:07:45
that srian should remain in the uk until his health improved the drawn-out process took an emotional
01:07:54
toll on the hinduja family on november 13 2011 they held a candlelit vigil in their hometown of mariastod to
01:08:04
commemorate the one-year anniversary of annie's murder while the extradition hearings continued
01:08:15
on march 29 2012 bbc current affairs program panorama broadcast an hour-long feature
01:08:23
about the hijacking case titled the honeymoon murder in the episode experts examined the
01:08:30
evidence collected by south african police and discovered a number of inconsistencies particularly in relation
01:08:38
to the state's forensic evidence annie's autopsy stated that she had likely been cowering in a defensive
01:08:45
posture at the time of her death but when uk home office pathologist dr richard shepherd
01:08:52
viewed the case file he found no evidence to indicate such a thing instead dr shepard believed that the
01:09:00
lack of blood spatter on the back of the passenger seat suggested annie had been sitting up and
01:09:06
leaning forward at the time she was killed additionally the two hijackers had each
01:09:12
presented a different story as to how annie was killed upon kalile mungeni's arrest he had
01:09:20
claimed that umziwa madoda kwabe had approached dany via the rear passenger door
01:09:25
and shot her during a tussle over her handbag kwabe denied this version of events
01:09:32
claiming that mungueni had shot annie while he was sitting in the front passenger seat
01:09:38
a claim that was later deemed to be incompatible with the forensic evidence south african investigators had
01:09:47
concluded that annie had been killed by a bullet fired from between 5 and 10 centimeters
01:09:53
away this was contested on panorama by mark mystaglio a leading firearms expert at the uk's
01:10:02
forensic science service he found that the size and pattern of the gunshot and residue indicated a firing position of
01:10:11
less than five centimeters mystaglio suspected that the gun went off when pressed right up against danny
01:10:19
perhaps during a struggle angela shaw one of the uk's leading experts on gunshot residue
01:10:28
told panorama that the south african police had failed to test the hijacker's clothing
01:10:33
and much of the taxi for gunshot residue this meant she was unable to determine where the shooter had been positioned
01:10:42
at the time and he was shot several gaps in zalatongo's story were also pointed out
01:10:49
including his claim that shreyan had said he wanted a client killed instead of simply naming annie as his
01:10:57
victim commentators from south africa's criminal justice system expressed concern over how quickly
01:11:04
tongo's plea deal was arranged with a former acting high court judge stating it seemed to me that the national
01:11:13
prosecution service was under some political pressure to get some result as soon as possible
01:11:22
william booth chair of the country's criminal law committee said in south africa things are not
01:11:29
happening as they should i don't believe the prosecution authorities are checking up on their
01:11:34
evidence beforehand it's like we've got to nail somebody so let's just go for it
01:11:43
panorama also spoke to witnesses who had encountered annie and shreen in south africa
01:11:50
the waitress who served the couple on their first night in cape town stated that they showed
01:11:55
little affection to one another which was unusual compared to other honeymooners she had waited on
01:12:02
simbonile matakazi the local man who had helped shrine call police after the hijacking
01:12:09
said that he believed srien's distress after the crime had been genuine simbonile had been
01:12:16
surprised when he found out that sreyan was accused of being involved with the murder plot
01:12:24
annie's family were upset by the panorama episode viewing it as a trial by media before
01:12:30
srian had had his day in court while kolile mungeni awaited trial in south africa
01:12:40
he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor court proceedings were delayed as he
01:12:46
underwent surgery and recommenced in august 2012. by then mongeni was significantly
01:12:55
underweight and required the use of a walking frame his lawyers claimed the confession he
01:13:02
had made during his first police interview shouldn't be admissible in court as it
01:13:07
was made under duress after mungeni had been tortured by the police the trial judge robert henney found no
01:13:16
evidence of assault or coercion by the police and ruled that the confession was admissible
01:13:24
umziwa madoda kwabe and monday mblambo both testified at the trial that they and mungani
01:13:31
had come to be involved in the hijacking via taxi driver zola tongo kwabe said he
01:13:39
and mungeni had first met up with tongo on the afternoon before the murder to discuss their plan for the hijacking
01:13:47
this was confirmed by two eyewitnesses who saw the three men sitting in a car together on the day in question
01:13:56
kwabe told the court that on the night of the hijacking moongenie had shot annie after tongo and
01:14:02
shreyan had been thrown out of the minivan he and mongani then collected their payment from the passenger seat
01:14:10
only to find it was five thousand rand short of the amount they had requested the two then retrieved the
01:14:17
spent cartridge and threw it down a drain before abandoning the vehicle a long time friend of mungeni's named
01:14:26
lukaya bessela testified that in the early hours after the murder mongenie had arrived at his house with
01:14:33
tongo's stolen mobile phone later that day mongini confessed to lakaya that he had robbed and shot a woman
01:14:44
two days later the police found mongini in lakaya's home where annie's armani watch and white
01:14:51
gold bracelet had been hidden in the roof mongenie claimed that the witnesses were
01:14:58
lying and denied having any involvement in the crime instead providing an alibi for the night
01:15:04
of the murder judge henny ultimately rejected the alibi asserting that it didn't match the
01:15:11
evidence presented by the prosecution [Music] he found mangini guilty of all charges
01:15:18
except kidnapping citing that kidnapping was part of the murder plot and would therefore be a duplication
01:15:25
conviction mungeni was sentenced to life in prison in england shrine's defence team
01:15:39
continued to argue that their client still wasn't well enough to be extradited to south africa
01:15:46
in july 2013 judge howard riddle again ruled that sri and be extradited but srian appealed the decision
01:15:57
three months later several judges questioned whether it might be unjust and oppressive to send shreem
01:16:04
back to south africa before his mental health issues had cleared yet another hearing took place on
01:16:12
january 31 2014 but on this occasion the judges rejected shrine's appeal and upheld
01:16:20
judge riddle's ruling annie's father vinod had flown to england from sweden to attend the hearing
01:16:28
while his wife nalam was forced to stay home as her health had suffered significantly
01:16:34
following her daughter's murder vinod later wrote of his relief at the ruling in his book
01:16:41
annie dawani a father's story quote it had been a long three and a half year wait
01:16:49
a wretched time for us there had been upset after upset endless tears and the suffering
01:16:57
torment and pain my wonderful family had endured amounted to nothing short of persecution
01:17:05
all we had ever asked for was the truth the one person who could help us had remained six thousand miles away from
01:17:13
his accusers for all that time now the wait was over authorities in south africa were
01:17:22
required to make special arrangements for shrines return he was to be flown to cape town on a
01:17:29
private charter plane at the cost of almost 3 million south african rand or the equivalent of approximately 247
01:17:38
000 australian dollars rather than being held on remand he would be staying at the volkenberg
01:17:46
psychiatric hospital where a private room would be redecorated in anticipation of his
01:17:52
arrival on april 7 2014 shreyan dewani arrived in cape town where he was arrested and charged with
01:18:02
conspiracy to commit kidnapping robbery with aggravating circumstances kidnapping
01:18:09
murder and obstructing the administration of justice he pleaded not guilty to all charges
01:18:22
shrien's trial commenced six months later on october 6 2014 with the judge jeanette traverso
01:18:30
presiding in a highly unusual move proceedings began with srian's defence council reading a statement prepared by
01:18:39
their client who wanted to explain to the court why he was pleading not guilty in the statement srian spoke of his love
01:18:49
for rani and his commitment to their relationship while also acknowledging that they'd had some disagreements prior
01:18:56
to their wedding he outlined the events of their honeymoon up to and including the night they were
01:19:03
hijacked and detailed the ongoing trauma he'd experienced following annie's death quote
01:19:11
as a consequence of the traumatic experience which resulted in the loss of my wife
01:19:17
i have been hospitalized for over three years and suffered from severe post-traumatic
01:19:22
stress disorder this and the resultant flashbacks nightmares and anxiety attacks have affected my
01:19:31
memory and impacted on my ability to precisely and chronologically recall events
01:19:37
concerning this terrible incident shriyan's statement also addressed his sexuality
01:19:45
which had been discussed in a number of tabloid articles in the years following the crime he explained that he
01:19:52
was bisexual and had slept with both women and men including german sex worker leopold eliza who had
01:20:01
previously spoken with the press about his encounters with shran as srian had steadfastly denied these
01:20:09
allegations for almost four years this admission came as a shock to many including the hinduja family
01:20:19
the prosecution considered srian's sexuality as the motive behind dany's murder they presented evidence that srien had
01:20:28
maintained a user profile at a dating website for gay and bisexual men called gaydar since august 2004
01:20:38
computer forensic analysts had found that srian had logged onto the site twice on november
01:20:44
12 2010 while he and annie were at johannesburg airport waiting for their flight to cape
01:20:50
town he had also accessed the site for three hours on november 15 2010 less than 48 hours
01:21:00
after annie's murder an examination of shrien's laptop had also revealed 53 emails between himself and a man who
01:21:10
wasn't named in court some of which were sexually explicit while this evidence was being presented
01:21:20
judge traverso suddenly intervened and stated that srian's sexuality was irrelevant to the
01:21:26
murder charge as he had already addressed the matter in his opening statement she banned the prosecution from
01:21:34
presenting their next witness german sex worker leopold eliza who had intended to testify about his sexual
01:21:42
encounters with shran the prosecution then called annie's cousin sneya to the stand
01:21:49
although judge traverso had deemed most of her planned testimony to be inadmissible sneyer discussed some of
01:21:58
the text messages she had received from annie in the months preceding her death and spoke about shreyan's strange
01:22:06
behavior in the days following annie's murder in regards to srian's initial claim that
01:22:13
it had been annie who requested the couple drive through the cape flats sneyer stated that annie would never ask
01:22:21
such a thing by this point taxi driver zola tongo had already served almost four years for
01:22:32
his role in orchestrating annie's murder in accordance with the plea deal he'd struck with prosecutors
01:22:39
tongo testified that srian had approached him about organizing a murder immediately after the couple arrived at
01:22:46
the cape grace hotel on friday november 12 2010 congo explained that his brand monde
01:22:55
blumbo had put him in touch with umziwa madoda kwabe who tongo had then planned the murder
01:23:02
with he also told the court how he had helped shreyan exchange his money to pay for
01:23:08
the hit tongo testified that on saturday november 13 he was scheduled to pick up shreyan and
01:23:16
danny at 7 30 pm but was delayed by about half an hour an agitated sounding shreyan had called
01:23:25
to ask where he was insisting the hit had to take place that night the original plan was for kwabe and
01:23:34
mongani to carjack the vehicle earlier in the evening but the two men were delayed due to a
01:23:40
transportation issue when tongo dropped shreen and annie at the surfside restaurant for dinner
01:23:48
annie had walked inside while srien had pulled tongo aside demanding to know why the
01:23:54
hit hadn't yet taken place he threatened to kill tongo if the plan didn't proceed before following
01:24:02
annie into the restaurant srian then called tongo during the meal and tongo reassured him that the murder
01:24:11
would take place after dinner when shreyan and dany were back in tongo's minivan phone records showed
01:24:20
that tongo had sent sri in a text message at 10 40 p.m in which he claimed to have asked shreyan where he had
01:24:29
hidden the 15 000 rand for the hijackers according to tongo shreyan had texted back
01:24:37
to say the money was in an envelope in a pouch behind the passenger seat at approximately 11 pm tongo
01:24:47
texted kwabe to let him know they were about to arrive in guguletu the hijacking had taken place shortly
01:24:55
after and tongo had then walked to a police station to report the incident he told the court that it was only when
01:25:04
the police were driving him back to the cape grace hotel that he overheard them mentioned that
01:25:09
annie was srian's wife tongo claimed he didn't know that the pair were married as shreyan had told him the murder
01:25:18
victim was a client of his at the cape grace hotel tongo claimed that he and srian spoke
01:25:27
intermittently over the course of the night with shreen approaching to ask whether the job had been done
01:25:35
on tuesday november 15 shrine had asked him to come to the hotel to collect his five thousand rand
01:25:42
finder's fee they met near a corridor in the lobby and shreyan gave tongo an envelope in a plastic bag
01:25:51
tongo went into a bathroom to check the envelope only to find it contained one thousand
01:25:57
rand instead of the five thousand they'd agreed to he claimed he tried to find australian
01:26:04
but never saw or spoke to him again during cross-examination the defense examined a number of holes in tongo's
01:26:14
story despite his claim that he had no further contact with shreyan after the financial transaction phone
01:26:22
records indicated that shreyan had made a 54 second phone call to tongo one hour and 40 minutes after this
01:26:30
incident cctv footage also appeared to refute tongo's assertion that srien had called
01:26:38
him in an agitated state around 7 30 pm on the night of the murder security cameras in the lobby of the
01:26:47
cape grace hotel had captured sri and making this call but he appeared calm and was standing
01:26:54
right next to annie the whole time cctv footage also disproved tongo's claim that srien had accosted him outside the
01:27:05
surfside restaurant after annie went inside alone security cameras had captured srian
01:27:12
walking ahead of annie who was trailing behind and a waiter had confirmed to bbc panorama
01:27:19
that srien had entered the restaurant first the defense insisted that srian had only
01:27:26
ever contacted tongo to book taxi appointments as he and annie had liked his friendly personality
01:27:33
and were happy to have him chauffeur them around cape town in regards to the us dollars that tongo
01:27:41
had helped sri in exchange the defense said that shreyan planned to use the money to book a scenic
01:27:47
helicopter trip to surprise annie which cost around 10 000 rand tongo was helping him arrange the
01:27:56
helicopter ride which explained why shreen had met with tongo the night before the murder
01:28:02
as well as the various text messages sent between the two monday in blombo the man who had
01:28:12
introduced tongo to the hijackers was also called to testify on behalf of the prosecution
01:28:20
blumpo stated that tongo had told him that a husband wanted his wife killed which contradicted tongo's claim that he
01:28:28
didn't know annie and shreyan were married blumbo had been offered immunity in exchange for his testimony
01:28:37
as investigators thought his role in the plot was minimal however while he was on the stand it was
01:28:44
revealed that his involvement went further than police had initially believed on the night of the murder cctv footage
01:28:54
from the protea coliseum hotel wherein blombo worked recorded him talking on the phone to tongo
01:29:01
and making several statements that sounded as though he was in charge such as this is how it's going to happen
01:29:12
during cross-examination blombo's evidence unraveled and he started to contradict himself on
01:29:18
every aspect of his earlier police statements and the testimony he gave at kolilee
01:29:24
mongini's trial in the end judge traverso rejected blombo's immunity and declared him to be
01:29:32
a self-confessed liar regardless south africa's national prosecution service never brought any
01:29:40
charges against him umziwa madoda kwabe's testimony resulted in further inconsistencies
01:29:50
kwabe claimed that ten thousand rand had been stashed behind the passenger seat as payment for the hit
01:29:56
which he and mungueni had split however mongani claimed they only received four thousand rand
01:30:04
which they had stolen from srian at gunpoint in further contrast srin claimed that
01:30:11
the hijackers had robbed him of between five and six thousand rand of all these claims the evidence
01:30:18
supported mongini's version of events as he was found to have spent just under 2
01:30:24
000 rand on shoes and clothes the day after the murder the prosecution's case was also hindered
01:30:32
by issues with the forensic evidence cuabe asserted that mongeni had shot annie from the front passenger seat
01:30:40
which the prosecution conceded wasn't forensically possible a police ballistics expert who had
01:30:48
reconstructed the layout of tongo's minivan had made significant errors by using a
01:30:53
different vehicle entirely which resulted in the defense deriding him during cross-examination
01:31:02
the exact details surrounding annie's murder remained a mystery on november 17 2014
01:31:14
the prosecution rested their case and australian's defense team immediately applied to have the trial
01:31:21
dismissed under section 174 of south africa's criminal procedure act this statute allows the court to return
01:31:30
a verdict of not guilty at the end of the prosecution's case if it's deemed there's no evidence that
01:31:36
the accused committed a crime judge traverso considered the submission and on december 8
01:31:44
she ordered that the case against sri and dewani be dismissed having found that there was
01:31:51
insufficient evidence upon which a reasonable court could convict him in explaining her conclusion judge
01:31:59
traverso noted that tongo was the only witness who could directly connect srian to the
01:32:05
crime but his testimony contained too many inaccuracies and lies to be deemed credible
01:32:13
she noted that tongo blombo and kwabe were all intelligent individuals capable of twisting their testimonies to
01:32:22
implicate shrien judge traverso added that a person couldn't be prosecuted without credible
01:32:29
evidence simply in the hope that he might incriminate himself while on the stand in conclusion
01:32:37
she stated regrettably there are many unanswered questions about what exactly happened on the
01:32:45
fateful night i realized that there is a strong public opinion that the accused should be
01:32:51
placed on his defense i have taken note of that i have also taken note of the plight of the hindujas
01:33:01
i have however taken an oath of office to uphold the rule of law and to administer justice without fear
01:33:09
favor or prejudice that i cannot do if i permit public opinion to influence my application of the law
01:33:20
in the light of the analysis of the state case there is no evidence upon which a
01:33:25
reasonable court acting carefully can convict the accused [Music] with the trial dismissed sri and iwani
01:33:35
was free to go [Music] annie's family were devastated by the decision in vinod hinduja's book he wrote
01:33:48
if i had not been sitting down my legs would have buckled and i would have fallen to the floor
01:33:54
i looked at my family and saw their pain everybody was beginning to move around me
01:34:01
but everything was silent in my head i saw dewani walk towards the exit of the dock
01:34:08
and disappeared down the stairs refusing to look at us as he passed they let him slip out of
01:34:16
the western cape court without telling us what happened outside court annie's sister army
01:34:25
told the press today we feel as a family that the justice system has failed us and we are deeply disappointed we came
01:34:35
here looking for answers and we came here looking for the truth and all we got was more questions
01:34:43
we waited patiently for four years to hear what really happened to annie the hope of actually finding
01:34:50
that out has kept us as a family going unfortunately we believe that this right has now been taken away from us because
01:35:00
we never heard the full story of srian we heard that srian has led a double life and
01:35:08
that annie knew nothing about it and we just wish that shreen had been honest with us
01:35:13
and especially with annie not ever knowing what happened to my dearest little sister on the 13th of
01:35:21
november 2010 that's going to haunt me my family my brother my parents for the rest of
01:35:30
our lives prior to srian's trial the hindujas had requested that an inquest into annie's
01:35:39
death be opened in the uk in february 2015 the inquest commenced in london's coroner's court
01:35:48
but senior coroner andrew walker determined that the matter wouldn't proceed any further he stated
01:35:58
the fact that there are differing accounts of how mrs dewani came by her death does not in my view mean that the
01:36:06
matters have not already been sufficiently established in public proceedings coroner walker said he was prohibited
01:36:15
from reaching a conclusion that contradicted the findings of the south african courts
01:36:21
but indicated that the inquest could be reopened in the future if new evidence came to light
01:36:32
sri and dewani returned to the uk where he maintained a low profile his family refused to speak to the media
01:36:41
other than to say they were glad that srian's name had been cleared in srian's hometown of bristol public
01:36:49
opinion was divided as to whether or not he was innocent some members of the community verbally
01:36:56
abused the journalists who gathered outside the dewani family home in the days following the trial while
01:37:03
others shouted the word killer in the direction of their house the driveway of their property was paint
01:37:11
bombed and a monopoly inspired get out of jail free card was left by the gates kolile mungeni died in the hospital ward
01:37:22
of goodwood prison as a result of his brain tumor after serving just two years of his life sentence
01:37:31
in september 2016 intended prosecution witness leopold eliza the sex worker who had previously engaged in sexual
01:37:40
activity with sri and dewani died by suicide a police investigation revealed that
01:37:48
leopold had been suffering from stress as a result of the trial in 2018 it was reported that srian was
01:37:58
in a relationship with a man and to the pair were living together in west london
01:38:04
on september 6 2019 zola tongo became eligible for parole after serving half of his 18-year
01:38:13
sentence he submitted his parole application in may 2019 with the board expected to make a
01:38:21
decision the following month as south africa employs a restorative justice program
01:38:28
to help inform parole hearings and his father vinod returned to the country to speak with
01:38:34
tongo details of their meeting haven't been publicly revealed but south african newspaper iowell
01:38:44
quoted vinod as stating we didn't get what we wanted he's still not telling the truth
01:38:54
as of the release of this episode there has been no news regarding tongo's possible parole
01:39:03
monday mblambo has never been charged in relation to annie's murder and umadota kwabe remains behind bars
01:39:14
to express the hinduja family's struggle with grief and to the criminal justice system in the years that followed
01:39:21
annie's murder vinod hindocha wrote a book titled annie dawani a father's story towards the book's conclusion vinod
01:39:33
expressed his relief that annie's marriage was never legally formalized writing you remained a hinduja
01:39:42
one of us not one of his the month after the book was published vinod was fixing an elevator near his
01:39:52
hometown of marius dodd when the chain slipped sending him hurtling to the ground
01:40:00
the force of the drop caused his right arm to be ripped off just below the shoulder vinod was
01:40:07
airlifted to hospital where doctors managed to reattach his arm after 16 hours of surgery
01:40:15
following the operation he underwent physiotherapy to aid in his recovery vinod spoke to the daily mail about the
01:40:25
experience stating after the operation i had a lot of pain everywhere but i could feel somebody dressing the
01:40:35
pain maybe it is my imagination but it was annie i believe she was there taking care of
01:40:44
me i still believe she is here she is here until she gets justice [Music] you