Cape Town - A Lansdowne businessman was found murdered on Saturday after he was abducted late on Friday and apparently driven to ATMs where money was withdrawn from his bank account.
His family suspects someone he knew was the mastermind behind the crime.
Imraan Daya’s body was found with gunshot wounds, dumped in the Wolfgat Nature Reserve in Mitchells Plain on Saturday afternoon.
He is expected to be buried on Sunday.
Imraan’s shocked father, Haroon Daya, told Weekend Argus he had identified his son’s body at a mortuary.
Hours earlier he wept as he held a photograph of his son and Imraan’s mother, Fatima, said she was worried because her son had seen his abductors’ faces.
She had been hopeful he was still alive because an acquaintance had spotted Imraan in the passenger seat of a car along Jan Smuts Drive on Saturday morning.
Fatima believes her son desperately tried to get a message to his family while being held hostage by purposefully dropping his cellphone in an Ottery street to leave a clue.
Imraan, 27, was hijacked outside a friend’s home in Belgravia Avenue in Lansdowne about 6pm on Friday. Gunmen sped off with him in the car he had been driving and a vehicle they had arrived in followed behind.
Later that night his cellphone was found outside a pharmacy in Ottery and the car he was driving, a white Golf 6, was discovered outside a fast food outlet in the area.
Police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Andre Traut said no arrests had been made.
Earlier on Saturday, in an interview at the family’s Lansdowne home, Fatima said she just wanted the abductors to release her son unharmed. She believed Imraan was specifically targeted for money. “It’s all about money.
“He doesn’t know those guys (who abducted him), but someone that he knows is behind this… It’s jealousy and greed.”
She said her son, the eldest of her four children, was in the car dealership industry and owned a popular pizza eatery in Claremont.
Fatima said on Friday evening Imraan, who had been driving a car of a friend who was in Durban, left a car wash in Lansdowne and drove to a friend who lived about two streets away.
“As he pulled up he sent his friend a (text) message saying ‘I’m outside your house.’”
Fatima said the friend, who the family did not want identified given the sensitive stage of the case, got into the passenger seat of the car Imraan was driving.
“He only had time to greet him when this other car, a gold Astra, pulled up facing them. Three men were in it. The friend asked (Imraan) if he knew them, he said no.
“The first guy got out the car with a gun. He swore, saying they must get out and went to the driver’s side. The friend saw the gun and inched the passenger door open,” she said.
Fatima said the friend saw a second man get out the car with a shotgun and the friend managed to get out the car and get into his house to call for help.
Imraan was apparently forced into the passenger seat of the Golf and the gunmen sped off.
Fatima said after 8pm a customer at a pharmacy in Ottery noticed a cellphone on the pavement and handed itin.
It turned out to be Imraan’s phone, which was still switched on, but slightly damaged..
Fatima said the SIM card from the phone was later removed and put in another handset.
SMSes showed where and when thousands of rand had been withdrawn from Imraan’s account. “So far R25 000 has been withdrawn,” Fatima said.
The account has now been blocked.
Weekend Argus