SOUTH AFRICA CARJACK MURDER: SHRIEN DEWANI DENIES LINK TO 2ND MURDER RIDDLE
ABOVE: Shrien Dewani is being investigated over links to a second killing
HONEYMOON murder suspect Shrien Dewani is being investigated over links to a second killing.
Police in South Africa probing wife Anni’s death are looking at a possible connection between Dewani and the murder of a doctor in the country.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="339">
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It follows claims from the taxi driver in Anni’s case that Dewani had confessed to arranging another murder in a fake hijacking in South Africa.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="342">
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Dr Pox Raghavjee, 60, was shot dead in the Eastern Cape in November 2007 on his way to work.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="350">
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Reports in South Africa claimed the doctor’s widow Heather drove to Cape Town to comfort Dewani after Anni was killed last month.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="353">
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National Commissioner General Bheki Cele said yesterday that a link was being investigated. [ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="356">
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Dewani’s spokesman Max Clifford, 67, said the link was “ridiculous”.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="359">
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He added: “Heather Raghavjee flew from King William’s Town in South Africa to Cape Town to try to comfort the family at the request of her daughter-in-law Alvita, who lives in the Bristol area and knew the Dewani family.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="362">
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“She had never met Shrien before in her life. But she experienced what he experienced when her husband, Dr Pox Raghavjee, was shot dead in a car-jacking three years earlier.”[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="366">
Meanwhile, we can reveal that funds being raised in Anni’s name by Dewani’s family are going to a group linked with extremist violence.
Meanwhile, we can reveal that funds being raised in Anni’s name by Dewani’s family are going to a group linked with extremist violence.
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Following a plea by his relatives, well-wishers have donated more than £9,000 in memory of Anni through a JustGiving fund-raising page.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="369">
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On the face of it, the cash is going to a Hindu welfare centre called the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (VKA) in Maharashta, west India.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="372">
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But we can reveal the organisation behind the centre has been mired in claims of paramilitary violence against other religions in India.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="375">
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One report into extremism in the country said: “Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram…has been responsible for considerable violence and hatred against Christian and Muslim groups, including during the Gujarat carnage in 2002.”[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="378">
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A website for the centre has links to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) group, which has been accused of organising anti-Christian riots and branded a terror outfit. Last night no one from VKA or RSS was available to comment.
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Care homes boss Dewani, 30, who is suspected by police of conspiring to have wife Anni, 28, murdered during a fake hijacking of their taxi, was once general secretary of the National Hindu Students Forum UK.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="385">
In 2004 he denied claims the organisation was radical.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="386">
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He said: “We are not extreme and refute any allegations – direct or indirect – that infer that we are.”[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="389">
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Yesterday the police said they were continuing the process of trying to get Dewani extradited to South Africa.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="392">
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On Friday he was granted bail, having spent two nights in a London jail. But he must wear a tag and live at his parents’ house after paying a £250,000 surety.[ itxtharvested="1" itxtnodeid="395">