“I knew I was going to have to strangle him. As I approached him, I kept thinking of how much pain he had brought to my life and I placed my hand around his neck and started squeezing.”
These were the chilling words of convicted murderer Amith Sewkarran, who testified in mitigation of sentence in the Pietermaritzburg High Court yesterday.
Reliving the events of February 6, 2009, when he and his wife, Kalisha Rajcoomar, 24, killed Sandesh Poorun - Rajcoomar’s former lover and the father of her three-year-old child - Sewkarran described the murder as being “like a nightmare, like I was looking at myself from the outside”.
Said Sewkarran, 26: “I could not believe what I had done. I know I’m not the type of person to do something so brutal.”
The couple pleaded guilty to the murder in October, 2009.
Poorun’s family and friends, who packed the public gallery along with relatives of the couple, heard how Sewkarran and Rajcoomar had decided to kill Poorun because of his continued harassment and threats levelled against them.
Sewkarran said that when he became romantically involved with Rajcoomar in 2006, Poorun immediately became incensed, and began threatening him and his family if he did not stay away from her.
“Sandesh told me that he and Kalisha were still together, but I knew they had broken up before she and I became a couple,” he said. “But Sandesh continued to threaten me. He told me I would not live for very long if I did not leave Kalisha alone.”
When he and Rajcoomar were together, they were extremely happy, but they often fought over Poorun’s interference and harassment, Sewkarran said, adding that in 2007 he and Rajcoomar broke up and she resumed her relationship with Poorun, which was when she fell pregnant.
He said that during the pregnancy, he and Rajcoomar had platonic contact, and she would tell him how unsupportive Poorun was of her.
After the baby was born, Sewkarran and Rajcoomar got back together, but Poorun refused to accept it.
“He told me that I was stealing his family away from him, but he had the opportunity to make it work with her and he didn’t take it,” he said. “He just didn’t want her to be with anybody else.”
Sewkarran said that after numerous threats, harassing phone calls and aggressive confrontations, he and his wife obtained a protection order against Poorun, but the police failed to arrest him.
Eventually the couple, frustrated with the situation, decided to kill Poorun.
Wiping away tears, Sewkarran explained how he and Rajcoomar hatched a plan to lure Poorun to the Gables Inn, where she plied him with alcohol and drugs.
When they realised the overdose of drugs was not going to kill him, Rajcoomar called Sewkarran and he arrived with no weapon or plan of how he was going to kill Poorun.
“When I arrived, we both realised that this was it. If our lives were ever going to have meaning again, this was the opportunity to free ourselves of him,” said Sewkarran.
It was then, he said, that he knew he was going to have to strangle Poorun, and did so by placing his hand around his neck and squeezing.
“Sandesh gasped for air, but he couldn’t scream because I was holding his neck too tight. I kept my arms locked around his throat for what seemed like hours.
“Eventually he stopped struggling and I let go. He wasn’t breathing and his body was cold,” he said.
He said Rajcoomar then wiped down Poorun’s body with a wet towel and she dressed him. The couple then loaded the body on to the back seat of their car and drove to a petrol station where they bought charcoal and petrol to burn the body to eliminate any evidence.
In a remote area outside Pietermaritzburg, Sewkarran said, he covered Poorun with charcoal, doused him with petrol and set the body alight. The couple then drove to Durban, where they dumped Poorun’s cellphone.
Facing the public gallery, Sewkarran said that all he wanted was forgiveness and mercy.
“As tough as it is, I have to face the reality of my situation. I took Sandesh away from his family, people who loved him. I felt like a coward for not standing up to him and protecting my family,” he said.
“Part of me blamed Kalisha for what happened, but I still love her, and she loves me… if I am wrong about this, then I am the world’s biggest fool.”
Also testifying in mitigation of sentence on behalf of Sewkarran yesterday was clinical physiologist Clive Willows, who said that Sewkarran was an “unassertive, unassuming, placid young man who lacked leadership qualities”, and that in his opinion, Sewkarran had become “borderline obsessed with Rajcoomar to the point where he would do anything for her”.
Willows said that in his observation of Rajcoomar, she appeared the more “dominant” personality, and that the murder was “dramatically uncharacteristic of Sewkarran”.
“People who are passionately in love are more prepared to take risks and their judgement becomes impaired,” he said, adding that at the time Sewkarran agreed to kill Poorun, he felt that he had no alternative.
Sewkarran is expected be cross-examined today. - Daily News