Thursday, December 16, 2010

ANNI DEWANI: Profile

British businessman Shrien Dewani has been accused in a South African court of offering £1,300 to murder his wife Anni Dewani. Here is a profile of his Swedish-born bride.

Honeymoon murder: suspect set to publicly accuse husband of involvement
Anni and Shrien Dewani  Photo: PA
Anni Dewani had been married for a matter of days before she was murdered during her honeymoon in South Africa.
Her car was hijacked on November 13, 2010 as it took a detour through Gugulethu, one of the poorest townships of Cape Town.
Her husband Shrien Dewani, 30, was released by their attackers and his wife's body was found on the back seat of the abandoned car the following morning. She had been shot in the neck, chest and hand.
Mr Dewani told one newspaper that his wife wanted to see "the real Africa".
Swedish-born Mrs Dewani, 28, was an engineering graduate and part time model.
Her family had been forced out of their home in Uganda by Idi Amin in his anti-Asian pogroms of the early 1970s and given asylum in Scandinavia.

Mrs Dewani grew up in Mariestad, Sweden, graduated in engineering and was working for Eriksson in Stockholm before she decided to move to the UK.

She moved to England to help her husband to run a nursing home and entered Bristol's Top Model competition this year under her maiden name, Anni Hindocha.

The couple met when Mrs Dewani came to Britain last year to stay with her cousin Sneha, who was living in Luton. They became engaged in June.

Mr and Mrs Dewani had married in a "fairytale" Hindu ceremony in Mumbai, surrounded by family and friends just two weeks before the attack.

They started their honeymoon with a four-day safari near South Africa's Kruger Park and had been in Cape Town for only a day when the carjacking took place.

Mrs Hindocha's family has voiced concerns about the investigation by South African police into her murder.

Ashok Hindocha, Mrs Dewani's uncle, urged the police not to rule anyone out of the investigation and challenged Mr Dewani to return to South Africa.

He said: "If it was my wife who was murdered I would jump into a plane, go there and ask those people, 'Why did you kill my wife and for what?'

 This is a question that not only the Hindocha family but millions of people around the world would like to know."