Court hears details of double murder during bail application
It was a full day of court proceedings with the gallery packed with family and friends of the deceased.
Emotions ran high in the Port Shepstone Regional Court last Thursday, after the packed gallery heard the gruesome details of how Dale Kistna (32) and Sphelele Shongwe (24) from Marburg spent their last hours and days.
Kistna’s decomposed body was found at Msinsini area on February 28 this year, and the skeletal remains of Shongwe was also found in the same vicinity in September.
Businessman Dane Rangasamy (38), and brothers Vishaan Dharamraj (43) and Rajeeth Dharamraj (47) alongside Mark Naidoo (47) and Mervyn Craig Nadarajan (42) from Saps Crime Intelligence from Port Shepstone were arrested on December 13.
During their bail application they pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, kidnapping, defeating the ends of justice and attempted murder.
It was a full day of court proceedings with the gallery packed with family and friends of the deceased.
The State read the affidavit of investigating officer Detective Warrant Officer Herman Pienaar which stated that a theft case was opened by Rangasamy at the police station earlier in February for stolen rims of a BMW, however it was heard that some of the men (the accused) took it upon themselves to conduct their own investigations into the missing rims.
Late in February, Kistna and Shongwe were kidnapped. It was also reported that a State police vehicle may have been used in the kidnappings.
Kistna and Shongwe were taken to a small room with no air flow on a premises that consisted of a workshop and a church in Victory Road, Marburg. The workshop is owned by Rangasamy. Ranjeeth Dharamraj has a workshop in Harding, and does subcontract work with Rangasamy. Vishaan Dharamraj is an operations manager at a bank.
The affidavit read that Kistna and Shongwe were locked up and viciously tortured for days, by being electrocuted, tubed by having a plastic bag placed over their heads (injected with pepper spray), hit with an open hand, their feet set alight, teeth pulled out or having their heads immersed in water.
The affidavit further read that two of the employees were seated with Kistna’s and Shongwe’s bodies during the 80km drive to where the bodies were dumped in a secluded spot in Msinini. The employees had to then clean the workshop and throw away the exhibits used.
The bail application was postponed to Wednesday) and Thursday this week to call W/O Pienaar to the witness box.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like the South Coast Herald’s Facebook page, follow us on Twitter and Instagram
