Rameez Patel: DNA and evidence leads murder trial

The murder trial against 38-year-old Polokwane businessman Rameez Patel hangs in the balance as the State and defence delivered their closing arguments in a matter that has gripped the community.

The trial is set to continue on Tuesday in the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo.

The state and the defence are expected to conclude their closing arguments when the matter resumes.

Last week, the court heard testimony from Rameez’s brother, Razeen, about how the businessman threatened him with death if he told anyone that he had killed his 28-year-old wife, Fatima.

DNA

The court also heard challenging arguments from Rameez’s lawyer, Advocate Saleem Khan, about how the State “does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that the businessman killed his wife.

Khan argued that the State prosecutor at the time, Advocate Mashudu Mudau, stated that “from the beginning, the State’s case was built on circumstantial evidence.”

During the trial, it emerged that Rameez had an injury to his finger and scratch marks on his neck on the day of Fatima’s murder.

However, Khan argued that the absence of Rameez’s DNA under Fatima’s fingernails proves his innocence.

ALSO READ: Rameez Patel threatened to kill brother if he spoke about killing Fatima, court hears

Khan stated that “ghusl” (showering or washing of the body) would not have eliminated Fatima’s DNA from under her fingernails.

Injuries

Rameez himself testified that he found Fatima lying in a pool of blood in the living room of the house. He said he picked her up and held her against him.

He said that he later went to an uncle’s house nearby to bathe and change into clean clothes to attend the customary Muslim evening prayers.

The State believes that Rameez sustained the scratch marks in a fight with Fatima before she was killed. Fatima’s body was exhumed for forensic analysis.

Senior State Advocate Lethabo Mashiane told the court that there was factual and circumstantial evidence against Rameez.

Mashinane, who took over from Mudau, stated that Rameez could not explain how he was injured and got the scratch marks and that the autopsy on Fatima revealed that she “fought back” at the time of the murder.

Mashiane argued that “no reasonable person” would have acted the way Rameez did and gone to a relative’s house to shower while his wife’s body was still in their townhouse.

Innocence

But Khan, citing testimony from Razeen, who was with Rameez when he found Fatima’s body on 10 April 2015, argued that the businessman’s actions showed innocence.

This was revealed in Razeen’s testimony in August 2016, where he stated that Rameez “screamed” when he saw Fatima’s body, picked it up and held it close to him.

Rameez denied that he killed Fatima.

Mashiane also argued that there was no break-in at the couple’s townhouse and nothing was stolen.

Marital problems

In a statement to police, the couple’s domestic Sibongile Ngwenya said “Fatima was angry” with Rameez on the day of the murder.

Ngwenya and Danny Gundiza, a former employee of Rameez, also reportedly disappeared without a trace three years ago while in a police custody Programme.

The court also heard that Rameez and Fatima had marital problems and that he had an affair with a woman, whom he married after his wife’s death, according to Netwerk24.

Fatima’s body was found in a pool of blood at their Nirvana home in Limpopo after they allegedly had a fight.

Cause of death

An autopsy by forensic pathologist Dr Thakadu Mamashela revealed that Fatima was executed with a single shot to the head, indicating that, at some point before her death, she was strangled and suffered blunt force trauma that dislocated her jaw, possibly caused by a cricket bat that was recovered from the ceiling of the apartment.

Mamashela testified that Fatima died from the combination of the injuries.

However, Khan rebutted the testimony that Mamashela could not state which of the injuries led to Fatima’s death, citing defence witness Professor Terence Kommal in 2023.

Kommal testified that Fatima died from strangulation and should have been alive after being punched and shot because there was blood in her lungs. He said Fatima would’ve lived another fifteen minutes after being strangled.

Deaths

Rameez was also accused of killing his mother, Muhajeen, in front of her domestic worker. This case was provisionally withdrawn in 2021 due to a lack of evidence.

Rameez’s father, Firoz, was killed in an unsolved robbery, while Yunus Mayet, the father of his current wife, Nasreen, was kidnapped and murdered.

In 2018, his brother Razeen was shot days before he was due to testify against Rameez.

Rameez was released on bail in 2015 after being granted R250 000 bail at the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court.

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