Accused to ‘find family’s killers’

Mogamberry "Rajen" Kandasamy, 44, was granted bail in the Chatsworth Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Mogamberry "Rajen" Kandasamy, 44, was granted bail in the Chatsworth Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Published Jun 26, 2014

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Durban - A Chatsworth man charged with killing his wife and two children says he has been falsely accused and is determined to find his family’s real killers.

Mogamberry “Rajan” Kandasamy applied for bail in the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

Lolly Soobramoney, for the State, opposed his application.

Magistrate Leon Ferreira is to hand down his ruling next week.

Kandasamy’s wife, Varsha, daughter Melarisa, 18, and son, Megandran, 16, were found bludgeoned in their Chatsworth home in December. Police alleged they had been murdered with a Hanuman stick – the club the Hindu monkey god is depicted carrying.

In his bail affidavit, Kandasamy, 44, said perpetrators whose identities he did not know must have killed his family. He believed the killers could have drugged him.

He says he has amnesia and no knowledge of what happened on the day of the murders. He was sent for mental observation at Fort Napier Hospital, where psychiatrists ruled him fit to stand trial.

Kandasamy said police had forced a confession from him.

“I was dazed, confused… The police told me I had committed the offences and threatened to torture me.”

Kandasamy said that a protection order – to which the State referred in opposing bail for him – had been taken out by his wife 20 years ago. He said that if he was granted bail, he would hire a private investigator to probe the murders.

His attorney, Siven Samuel, argued that his client had proved exceptional circumstances as the State’s case was weak, being based on “circumstantial evidence”.

Samuel said the investigating officer had misled the court when he said Kandasamy was a “flight risk” because he had no assets. He handed up a letter confirming Kandasamy owned half of the Chatsworth home in which he and his family lived. The police did not want information that could lead them to the “real perpetrators”, he said.

 

Soobramoney said

there was a strong case. “If the accused is released on bail, it may lead the public to lose confidence in the justice system.”

The Mercury

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