Anni Dewani was shot dead in a car jacking in South Africa. Right, with new husband Shrien
‘It is clear there is evidence that has been put before me and on the face of it, and I put it no higher than that, evidence on which a trial could evidently proceed.’
But he added there was ‘a real possibility the defendant would be acquitted in due course’
Vinod Hindocha Dewani, Anni's father, wept in the court as he clutched a photo of his murdered daughter
Meanwhile the father of Anni Dewani said today that not knowing why his daughter was killed was ‘torture every day’. Vinod Hindocha who travelled from his home in Sweden to attend Tuesday’s explosive trial in Cape Town, said her siblings were also suffering from the ordeal and her mother was ‘traumatised’.
Mr Hindocha revealed that a day after the court hearing, he was driven through Guguletu township where the couple were supposedly hijacked and then to Khayelitsha where his daughter was found dead eight hours later with a single gun shot to the neck.
He told today’s Cape Times newspaper that he found the court hearing where he was jostled by a large media contingent ‘very painful’
Shrien Dewani's father, Prakash, leaves the court after hearing that his son has been remanded in custody as the South African authorities fight to extradite him
Allegations: Taxi driver Zola Tongo at the South African court yesterday
Police commissioner Bheki Cele labelled accused businessman Shrien Dewani 'a monkey'
'He thought we South Africans were stupid. Don’t kill people here.'A few days after the killing on November 13, Mr Cele said Dewani were not suspects. His comments came as it was claimed the millionaire left an envelope of cash to pay for the hit in a taxi.
The claim was made in Cape Town by the taxi driver who alleges he was hired by Dewani to organise his bride’s death
The 30-year-old bridegroom faces extradition to South Africa after being charged with conspiracy to murder his wife Anni on November 13 just two weeks after the couple married.
Tongo has also accused Mr Dewani of trying to orchestrate a similar hit on a previous visit to South Africa, the hearing yesterday was told.
He was convinced the businessman had earlier ‘arranged for someone to be killed in a fake hijacking’, the court heard.
Mr Dewani, a care home owner from Bristol, will appear before the High Court - possibly today - where a more senior judge will decide if he can be granted bail.
His wife, 28, was shot dead after two gunmen ambushed the couple’s cab as they were driven through an impoverished township to see the ‘real Africa’.
The killers were allegedly organised by Tongo. Both he and Mr Dewani were released unharmed in the attack.
As part of a plea bargain, the driver later told police he had arranged the killing at Mr Dewani’s instigation.
The businessman was granted bail yesterday on condition his family provide a £250,000 surety and he is electronically tagged.
Zola Tongo claims he and Mr Dewani agreed an ambush point in the dangerous township of Guguletu and that he later sent the businessman a text message reminding him about the fee.
Tongo alleges he received a reply from the 30-year-old as he sat in the back seat of the cab which stated the money was 'in an envelope in a pouch behind the passenger seat'.
If this was proved by phone records, it would be the only solid evidence to emerge in the mysterious case.
City of Westminster Magistrates' Court heard yesterday that Mr Dewani withdrew £800 from a Cape Town cashpoint on the eve of his wife’s murder last month.
Together with £200 he withdrew a few days earlier, it added up to 10,000 rand (£1,000) used to ‘pay for the assassination of his wife’, the court was told.
There were also allegations that Mr Dewani was seen on CCTV paying cash to the cabbie in a hotel 'days after Anni's body was found'.
Brigadier Sally de Beer of the South African Police Service said she could not comment on the claim, adding: 'Whatever evidence we have will be produced in court.'
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