Thursday, April 14, 2011

'We beg you Shrien, if you really love her, please give us the answers': Anni Dewani's family's plea to widower

 


  • Bride's brother: suspect has 'questions to answer'
  • Family: 'We can never let this go'
The family of Shrien Dewani's murdered bride begged the British businessman today to reveal 'what really happened'.

 
The care home owner is accused of ordering the killing of his new wife Anni Dewani on their honeymoon in South Africa, which he denies.

 
Relatives of Swedish 28-year-old Anni said they could not rest until they had found out how she died.
Anni Dewani's father, Vinod Hindocha, pictured at a court hearing in Cape Town last December, has pleaded with Shrien Dewani to 'give us the answers'
Anni Dewani's father, Vinod Hindocha, pictured at a court hearing in Cape Town last December, has pleaded with Shrien Dewani to 'give us the answers'
Her brother Anish Hindocha told ITV News: 'He has many questions to answer. I think he has to answer them.'

 
Her father, Vinod Hindocha, added: 'Anni, we loved you. We loved you so much. We beg you Shrien, if you really love her, if you really care for her, please give us the answers.
That's what we beg of you.'

 
The young bride's ashes will be scattered in Sweden, her father said, as it was 'where she belonged...where she loved'.

 
The family also hinted at how the trauma of losing Anni has taken its toll on them.
'It's torn the family apart,' her sister Ami Densborg said. 'We are going through a very, very difficult time.
Shrien Dewani, who is accused of ordering the killing of his new wife, denies any involvement in her death
Shrien Dewani, who is accused of ordering the killing of his new wife, denies any involvement in her death

'It's been five months since she died and every day we still think about her: in the morning, in the evening, when we talk to each other, it's always her.

 
'She's always on our minds and none of us can let this go.'

 
The South African authorities are seeking to extradite Dewani, 31, from Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol, for his alleged involvement in his wife's death.

 
He is currently on bail at Cygnet Hospital Kewstoke, a secure mental health hospital in Somerset.

 
The young businessman, who is said to be suffering from severe post-traumatic stress syndrome, was transferred from The Priory Hospital in Bristol on Monday after he became disruptive.

 
According to a source close to him, he lost his calm on Saturday night when a female patient, seeing him upset, asked him: 'If you're so distressed why don't you go back to South Africa?'
 

The source said Dewani picked up a plate of half-eaten toast in his bedroom and hurled it into the corridor.

 
He is also understood to have got into a heated discussion with one of the nurses earlier in the day and to have slammed his bedroom door so hard that he chipped the plaster.
His behaviour was thought to have been sparked by an adverse reaction to the anti-depressants he is taking.

 
Police were called to the hospital following the disruption and Dewani surrendered himself so that his bail residence could be altered, the source added.

 
At a hearing at Bristol Magistrates' Court on Monday, a district judge ruled he should be moved to the Cygnet Hospital.
Anni Dewani, 28, was killed on the second night of her honeymoon in Cape Town, South Africa, by armed robbers who hijacked the couple's taxi as they travelled to their hotel
He remains subject to £250,000 bail and strict conditions including a curfew and the requirement that he report daily to a local police station.

 
Mrs Dewani was shot when a cab the couple were travelling in was hijacked in the Gugulethu township in Cape Town in November.

Responding to Anni's family's comments, Dewani's family said the young woman's relatives had in fact turned down the opportunity to meet him since he became a suspect.A Dewani family spokesman said: 'Immediately after Anni's death, Vinod Hindocha returned from South Africa with Shrien to Bristol. He and his family sat with Shrien to ask about and hear what happened.

 
'After the allegations were made by the taxi driver the Hindocha family have declined to meet with Shrien.'
Grim-faced: A dejected Shrien Dewani at Woolwich Crown Court yesterday
Mr Dewani has been moved to a secure mental health facility after a reported bust-up with another patient at The Priory Hospital, Bristol on Monday

 
But the Dewanis have 'every sympathy' with Anni's family, he added.

'They believe everyone is suffering in this immense tragedy,' the spokesman said.
Mrs Dewani was found dead in the back of the abandoned taxi with a bullet wound to her neck after cabbie Zola Tongo drove the newlyweds to the deprived township.

 
Tongo originally claimed his vehicle was held up and he and Dewani were ejected before Mrs Dewani was driven away and killed.

 
But in a plea bargain later, Tongo claimed Dewani offered him 15,000 rand (£1,400) to arrange the killing.

 
The 31-year-old cabbie from Bothasig was sentenced to 18 years in jail for murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances and perverting the course of justice.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376701/Honeymoon-murder-Anni-Dewanis-family-plea-Shrien-answers.html#ixzz1JVAjiWnT
Anni Dewani, 28, was killed on the second night of her honeymoon in Cape Town, South Africa, by armed robbers who hijacked the couple's taxi as they travelled to their hotel