Last updated at 1:46 AM on 19th December 2010
Relatives of the British businessman accused of plotting to kill his bride on their South African honeymoon have spoken of his ‘frantic’ attempts to trace her after she was kidnapped.
They say Shrien Dewani rang a mobile phone company and asked if experts could track his wife Anni’s handset.
The care-homes tycoon also made strenuous efforts to obtain the registration number of the taxi driven by her abductors, pleaded with police to deploy a helicopter in the search and even enlisted the help of a private investigator.
'Blissfully happy': Shrien and Anni Dewani in traditional Indian dress. Friends of Mr Dewani say that he has been left 'traumatised and bereft' by the murder of his bride two days into their honeymoon
And he painted a portrait of 30-year-old Mr Dewani as a ‘zombie-like’ man left traumatised and bereft by the murder of his ‘adored’ bride, the woman he called his Indian Barbie because of her beauty and interest in fashion.
The accused husband is at his family home near Bristol on £250,000 bail. He is fighting extradition to South Africa over allegations that he arranged for two hitmen to kill his 28-year-old wife in a staged carjacking a fortnight after they married.
Pet name: Mrs Dewani shows off the Indian Barbie doll. The name was a nickname that Mr Dewani gave her because of her interest in beauty and fashion
‘We haven’t spoken before because we have been grieving, but our frustration at the things that have been said about Shrien is eating us up, and enough is enough.’
The honeymooning couple were on the second day of a trip to Cape Town on November 13 when their taxi, driven by Zola Tongo, was attacked by two gunmen in a notorious township.
First, Tongo was kicked out of the car, then Mr Dewani – but his bride was forced on a terrifying journey across the city and was found dead with a single bullet through her neck the following morning.
Tongo, 31, has already been jailed for 18 years after confessing to arranging the murder. But his sentence was reduced from 25 years after a plea bargain in which he alleged Mr Dewani asked him to hire the hitmen – a claim that is vehemently denied.
The two alleged gunmen, Xolile Mnguni, 25, and Mziwamadoda Qwabe, 23, are due to stand trial next year.
There have been many unanswered questions ever since Tongo’s jailing, and much damaging speculation about Mr Dewani’s behaviour.
One of the crucial areas of suspicion for South African police has been the couple’s decision to hire Tongo instead of using the airport-to-hotel shuttle service.
It has been reported that the driver’s services were arranged in advance of the honeymoon by Mr Dewani’s secretary in Britain.
COULD 'MISSING' LAPTOP HOLD CLUES TO RELATIONSHIP?
South African police believe it could contain vital information that might ‘shed light’ on her relationship with her husband.
Suggestions from police that ‘all was not well within the marriage’ have been fiercely denied by Mr Dewani’s family.
CCTV footage obtained by The Mail on Sunday shows Anni clutching the laptop as she strolled through the reception of the Chitwa Chitwa safari lodge adjoining the Kruger National Park.
The couple stayed there from November 9 to 12, the day before the killing.
Now the whereabouts of the laptop are not clear.
‘Investigators are hoping that they can quickly track down who is in possession of it so that experts are able to examine it thoroughly,’ said a South African detective.
Staff recall seeing Mrs Dewani working on the computer. Once, she left it at the lodge bar and was later seen on CCTV retrieving it.
The new enquiries come as Dinho Plembe, a barman at the lodge, questioned the intimacy of the newlyweds.
‘I never saw them kissing each other or cuddling or holding hands,’ he said. ‘If I hadn’t been told that they were on honeymoon I wouldn’t have guessed it.’
They were spending a few days in Cape Town and I would say it’s normal to pick up a taxi driver, which is what they did, and try to use him for the duration of the trip.’
The family member said he had been ‘strongly advised’ by lawyers not to discuss the events leading to the abduction, but spoke of its aftermath.
He addressed the inconsistency that arose from Mr Dewani’s different accounts of how he was removed from the car, a silver VW Sharan people-carrier.
Police are suspicious that the businessman was unharmed despite claiming he was thrown from the car while it was moving. He later said it was stationary when he was forced out.
‘I can say that the car wasn’t moving,’ said the relative. ‘What Shrien said initially was due to trauma and confusion.’
He also maintained that Shrien’s ‘clandestine’ meetings with Tongo before and after the murder were entirely consistent with the statements he has given police.
More than anything else, said the relative, Mr Dewani’s actions after being forced from the car clearly ¬suggest his innocence.
Dumped in a township late at night, he knocked desperately on the doors of roadside shacks seeking help. A local man who found him described his distress, as did a policeman, who said he was ‘standing in the road crying and clearly in shock’.
Both spoke of his desire to ‘ring the UK’ but did not know who he wanted to speak to.
‘He called us,’ said the relative. ‘His BlackBerry was taken in the robbery and he had the taxi driver’s number punched into it.’
The businessman apparently knew that the information in the phone would have automatically backed up, but he needed to speak to someone in the UK to access it.
‘It was quick thinking really,’ the family member said. ‘He thought that if he was able to speak to the driver [who had been dumped from the car a few minutes earlier] he would be able to get the registration and pass it to the police. He tried ringing the UK from a local police station, but couldn’t get an international line. So he decided to go straight back to the Cape Grace Hotel where they were staying and make the calls from there.
FRIENDS EMAIL IN HIS DEFENCE
Friends of Shrien Dewani have launched an email campaign to improve his public image.
News organisations have been inundated with messages from those close to Mr Dewani, urging them to believe in his innocence.
The friends say the allegations against the businessman are completely at odds with the man they know.
Anton Lane, a tax consultant who has known Mr Dewani for more than ten years, said: ‘You will have received many emails regarding Shrien Dewani.
‘I have worked with Shrien and his brother for many years and they are both reputable businessmen, kind, thoughtful and abide by a strict moral code.
‘There is no doubt in those close to Shrien that he is not capable of the atrocities publicised in the media.’
He said he had been encouraged to send his message by Mr Dewani’s brother, Preyen.
‘I wouldn’t call it a particularly organised campaign, but friends want to support Shrien,’ he added. Another friend, Margaret Stewart, said the depiction of Mr Dewani in the media since the killing was ‘hard to believe’.
News organisations have been inundated with messages from those close to Mr Dewani, urging them to believe in his innocence.
The friends say the allegations against the businessman are completely at odds with the man they know.
Anton Lane, a tax consultant who has known Mr Dewani for more than ten years, said: ‘You will have received many emails regarding Shrien Dewani.
‘I have worked with Shrien and his brother for many years and they are both reputable businessmen, kind, thoughtful and abide by a strict moral code.
‘There is no doubt in those close to Shrien that he is not capable of the atrocities publicised in the media.’
He said he had been encouraged to send his message by Mr Dewani’s brother, Preyen.
‘I wouldn’t call it a particularly organised campaign, but friends want to support Shrien,’ he added. Another friend, Margaret Stewart, said the depiction of Mr Dewani in the media since the killing was ‘hard to believe’.
‘He then got us to make a conference call to Vodafone and asked if they could track Anni’s phone – but they couldn’t do it without authorisation from the police. He tried Scotland Yard but we were told it was a matter for the South African authorities.
‘Shrien was making frantic attempts to trace Anni. In the middle of the night he even came up with the idea of hiring a private investigator to help out. We found one and put him on standby but he said there was little he could do until the morning. We have evidence to prove all of this.’
Mr Dewani, a former grammar school boy who was general secretary of the National Hindu Students Forum during his time at Manchester University, met Swedish engineer Anni Hindocha 18 months ago through mutual friends.
The relative said the Dewani marriage was ‘blissfully happy’.
‘When they decided they would like to get engaged they approached both of the families for their blessings.
‘Any suggestion that the marriage was arranged, or that there was pressure from either of the families, is utter rubbish.
‘There was no dowry, no pre-nuptial agreement, and the decision to marry was completely their decision.’
Asked about CCTV footage from the honeymoon that appeared to show a lack of intimacy between the couple, he said: ‘No couple are intimate 24 hours a day. Of course there were tiffs, areas where they had differences of opinion and different viewpoints, but that’s what makes a couple strong.
‘But I can tell you that Shrien is in a terrible state. He called Anni his Indian Barbie because she was so beautiful in every way. She had an Indian Barbie doll – it was a kind of joke between them – and now Shrien has it in his bedroom.’
'Madly in love' newlyweds sing to each other
Singing an Indian love song to each other on their first dance as a married couple, Anni and Shrien Dewani appear full of hope and excitement about their future together.It seems barely credible that these images were filmed less than two weeks before Anni was shot dead and her husband named as a conspirator in her murder.
The footage was taken at the couple’s lavish three-day wedding in Mumbai, attended by more than 300 guests. The ceremony, at the end of October, was estimated to have cost £200,000.
'Sickeningly in love': The couple look into each others eyes as they begin their dance, which included them singing along to their chosen song, Pehla Nasha
Singing along: Mr Dewani starts to sing the words of the song, which tells of two lovers choosing each other for ever
The newlyweds are seen dancing to the song, called Pehla Nasha, which translates as
First Love. It was popularised by a Nineties Bollywood film.
Mrs Dewani, who is lightly made-up and wearing a bow in her hair, is dressed in a green sarong, while her husband is seen in a traditional high-collared Indian wedding suit.
The words of the song describe two lovers choosing each other for ever and, as Mr Dewani starts to sing and his wife follows, at times she appears to be struggling to hold in the giggles.
Genuine affection: Mrs Dewani then joins her husband in singing the Indian love song, which was popularised in a Bollywood film
Having a giggle: The couple have to stifle their laughs as they come to the end of their first dance as a married couple
But the wedding guest said: ‘This wedding footage truly shows how they were together. For those who were there, there was no doubt at all that they were madly in love.’
