In a dramatic turn of events, charges against the Indian couple from Makhado (Louis Trichardt) accused of being accessories to a gruesome muti murder were dropped on Wednesday afternoon. This followed after the alleged muti murderer admitted to the police that he had lied about the couple’s involvement.
Musha Isap Ali Patel (62) and his wife, Hasina Muska Patel (60), the owners of Elti Café in Eltivillas, were arrested on Friday after a human arm was discovered. The police questioned them along with the main suspect, Freddy Azwitamisi Tshikhudo (38). Tshikhudo apparently told the police that he had been promised R70 000 and a motor vehicle by the Patels for supplying the hand, which was to be used for muti purposes. All three of them briefly appeared in the Louis Trichardt District Court on Monday.
After his arrest, Tshikhudo allegedly confessed to the police that the hand had come from the body of a woman whom he had been hired to kill. He told the police that the woman’s boyfriend had employed him. He led them to the bushy, mountainous area on the corner of Celliers and Songozwi Street, near the Grasdak Guest House.
There, in the early hours of Saturday morning, the police found the mutilated and already decomposing body of the woman. Her arm and private parts had been cut off and both her eyes had been removed, apparently while she was still alive. The police also found, lying next to her body, a pair of grey trousers, a red bra and white socks that she was wearing. She has medium-length dark brown hair.
The woman’s body was left to rot more than a kilometre into the bushy area and the police had to struggle for hours to clear the way into the bushes with pangas. Apparently, she had already been killed the week before, on 27 March. Her remains were finally airlifted from the bushes with the help of a police helicopter.
According to Capt Maano Sadike, the spokesperson for the Makhado police, the woman was lured to the bushes by her boyfriend under the pretence that they would be performing a prayer ritual for her. After the couple had finished praying, the woman was ordered to undress, and when she refused, she was overpowered and killed by Tshikhudo.
On Wednesday, the story took a dramatic turn when the Patel couple appeared in court again. Tshikhudo apparently made a statement wherein he admitted that he had tried to rob the Patel couple at their shop in Eltivillas. He had made up the story about the Indian couple’s involvement in an apparent effort to improve his own case. The police supposedly also found new evidence that may have pre-empted his further confession.
At the time of going to press, the exact details of what had happened at the Patels’ shop were not available. It also seems likely that the murdered woman was Tshikudo’s own girlfriend. Her body has not yet been identified and it was rumoured that she was very likely from Zimbabwe.
The police have appealed to the public to help them in identifying her or for her family to come forward. Anyone with information that might assist the police in their investigations can contact Capt Tshinyadzo Ndou at 082 807 2666 or the police’s emergency number, 10111. (LiN News / Limpopo Mirror)
