Durban - Alleged triple killer Mogamberry Rajan Kandasamy bludgeoned his family with traditional Indian maces because his wife Varsha wanted to file for divorce and told him she was seeing someone else, a court had heard.
The chilling details, revealed in the Durban High Court onTuesday), are contained in a confession which Kandasamy made to police on December 31, 2013 - two days after he allegedly went berserk at his Timera Grove home in Moorton, Chatsworth.
One of the maces broke after his daughter, Melarisa, 18, was struck thrice on her skull.
Kandasamy's hopes of walking free were dealt a blow when Judge Shyam Gyanda ruled, after the conclusion of a trial-within-a-trial, that the confession was admissible.
Kandasamy's counsel, advocate Ryan Naidu and attorney Siven Samuel had argued that the confession was not given freely and voluntarily and that Kandasamy had been tortured by police.
The court, however, ruled there was no evidence to sustain the allegation that warrant officers Robin Singh and Rama Moodley had schooled Kandasamy, who had pleaded not guilty, on what to say in his statement.
Judge Gyanda said Singh was not at the police station when the statement was taken down.
In his statement Kandasamy, 44, a former merchandiser at Shoprite at Chatsworth Centre, said he had first attacked his 41-year-old wife after she told him to leave her alone after he asked her, "You really want a divorce?"
He then struck her once on her face and twice on her head while she was sleeping.
Earlier, he and his wife had been involved in several arguments over why she was texting someone on her cellphone, he said in the statement.
He said that when Varsha was hit on the face she made a sound. He then left the mace next to her body.
His son Megandren, 17, was hit next, but it was not clear from his statement whether he had used the same mace.
"When Magandren walked into the bedroom towards his mother I struck him on the back of his head. He fell to the floor (and) I struck him twice on his head."
Kandasamy said when Melarisa walked into the bedroom she suffered the same fate: "I struck her once on the back of her head. She fell next to Megandren. While she was on the floor I hit her twice with the Hanuman stick on her head. On the third strike the stick broke."
According to the statement, Kandasamy undressed and threw his clothes next to his wife's body.
"I (then) went downstairs, put on my shirt, pants and shoes. I locked the house and walked down the road."
He claimed he recalled being at Nichol Square in Durban, Albert Park and Warwick Avenue.
In court Kandasamy claimed his statement was influenced by police and that he was unable to recall what happened before and after his family were killed.
The State, however, maintained that the person responsible for the triple murder was Kandasamy alone.
Kandasamy is out on R10 000 bail, and the trial will resume in November.
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