POLOKWANE – This testimony was given by investigating officer Johannes Tlou Chokwe and said the deceased made the statement during a visit around three months earlier.
Patel is on trial for the murder of his wife, Fatima, in 2015 and is accused of his mother’s murder earlier this year.
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Lawyer for the defence, Tumi Mokoena, wanted to pin the murder of Mahajeen, who was shot and killed last month by a hit man allegedly hired by Patel, on his brother, Razeen.
During Patel’s previous appearance in court, the state argued that cell phone records placed Patel at Extension 71, where the alleged hit man stays, shortly after his mother’s murder.
Chokwe testified that a witness told him Patel and his mother did not talk to each other for around two to three months before the murder. Patel was apparently concerned about the money his mother removed from her account and asked her why she did it and what she has done with the money.
Mahajeen allegedly transferred money from her account to stop Patel from getting access to all her money.
The defence in turn asked Chokwe if he had known that Razeen Patel, Rameez’s brother, and his mother was also not on good terms, he (Razeen) having called her a ‘bitch’ as she did not want to give him money, and that she also laid a charge of domestic violence at the Westenburg police station in August. State prosecutor, Mashudu Mudau, after having perused the document, said the document only referred to ‘verbal abuse’ and not threats to murder her.
Rameez Patel, according to two witnesses, had threatened to murder his mother.
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Chokwe said he took both the brothers’ cell phones after the murder for investigation, and after receiving the report on Rameez Patel’s phone, found he could be traced to Extension 71. According to him Razeen is not a suspect.
The court heard again of an amount Rameez Patel borrowed from another witness. Photos that were taken on a cell phone of the money and a pistol and ammunition were shown in court.
The door, which was allegedly opened by Patel to let the hitman enter the premises of his mother’s house, will be inspected in loco on 31 October by the State and the defence.
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