?
The murder trial of Polokwane businessman Rameez Patel got underway at the Polokwane High Court. Patel is accused of killing his first wife Fatima Patel in 2015. The couple has three children together. Her body was discovered in a pool of blood in the couple's townhouse in the suburb of Nivarna on 10 April 2015. Fatima, who was 28, had been hit with a baseball bat and choked and shot in the neck at close range. The case was adjourned on Tuesday following a rocky start due to load shedding and late coming of the stenographer. Yesterday, his legal representative Meshack Thipe called on medical expert and neuro-surgeon ,Dr.Ajay Maharaj, to provide witness testimony on behalf of the defence.
CHARGED FOR KILLING HIS MOM
Dr Maharaj told the court that the gunshot to the face could have not caused Fatimal's death. He further said Fatima's death is likely to have been caused by strangulation and pressure to the neck which led to excessive bruising of the thyroid bone. The Patel family was once one of the most influential business families in Limpopo, but since Fatima's death, the family has suffered from one tragedy to the next. On 12 August 2016 Patel's father, Firoz, who was 54 at the time was shot and killed in a suspected robbery while driving in Polokwane. In 2017 his mother ,Muhajeen, was shot and killed in a hit, three months after she had a fight with Patel. Investigating officer Tlou Chokwe told the court in 2017 that Muhajeen had told her relatives who were visiting from London that if she died an unnatural death, she would have been killed by Patel. She was allegedly killed to silence her about Fatima's murder. Patel has been charged for her murder.
DOUBLE MURDER
She had also moved all her money from.her accounts in order to prevent Patel from accessing it. The father of Patel's current wife ,Yunus Mayet, was kidnapped and murdered and his body was dumped 10 km from his house where he was kidnapped in September 2018. It's alleged that Mayet was against Patel and his daughter Nazreen's marriage. Mayet's murder remains unsolved. In July 2018 Patel's brother Razeen was shot a day before he was expected to testify at his brother's double murder trial. A suspect, Ali Salmaan, was arrested in 2020 and charged with Razeen's shooting. Razeen left the country a day after being discharged from hospital. Razeen had previously testified in court that he was at Patel's house when his sister-in-law Fatima was killed. Other family members who also feared for their lives also left South Africa in 2018.
BAIL OF R250K
At the moment their family mansion in Nivarna is a white elephant.The family's chains of grocery stores and spare-parts shops in Giyani, Polokwane and Thohoyandou have been sold. Patel is still out on R250 0000 bail. The trial continues on Thursday. The trial date for his mother's murder has not been set.
