Durban - Two Town Hill police officers have been fingered as the culprits behind a brutal paintball gun attack on slain doctor Bhavish Sewram in 2012.
This was revealed by ex-Mountain Rise detective, Sugen Naidoo, at the Pietermaritz-burg High Court on Friday.
Naidoo, a self-confessed drug addict, who has admitted to assisting murder accused Rajive Soni in his obsessive bid to exact revenge on Sewram after discovering that Sewram had allegedly slept with his wife, named Sergeants Ricky Naidoo and Nichal Maharaj as the men behind the paintball attack on Sewram.
Naidoo relayed a long tale of how he had approached the two sergeants on Soni’s behalf to assault Sewram.
Naidoo revealed that Soni had first asked Ricky Naidoo to vandalise Sewram’s surgery and the boundary wall of his residence with the words “sex pest” and “sex doctor” with neon spray paint for R500.
“Rajive and I had a good laugh while we watched Ricky doing this. He was ecstatic, like a small child. He was even more excited that it only cost him R500 to show Sewram’s patients and neighbours what kind of person he was,” Naidoo said.
Prominent Mountain Rise policeman Captain Pipes Haffajee was also named as Soni’s police “contact”, who assisted Soni in his attempt at a smear campaign against Sewram, falsely charging the doctor with sexual assault.
Haffajee was first identified as Soni’s contact on Thursday, but only by surname.
On Friday, Naidoo confirm-ed that the contact was “Captain Pipes Haffajee”.
Naidoo alleged that Haffajee was tasked with checking the false victim statement made by Sonali Khan, who had consult-ed with Sewram on the pretext of being a patient.
Haffajee would then tell Soni if the statement was of a good quality, which would result in Sewram being prosecuted. Haffajee was allegedly also paid R30 000 to tip off the media to Sewram’s court appearance.
Haffajee made a fleeting appearance in court on Friday, seated in the court gallery, listening to Naidoo’s evidence.
He left court during the morning tea adjournment after spotting media photographers in the building.
Naidoo said after Haffajee advised Soni that the sexual assault case against Sewram had been thrown out of court, Soni became incensed.
“He said he was f***ing tired of Sewram and wanted him dead. That is when he asked Ricky if he would shoot Sewram,” Naidoo said.
“Without hesitation, Ricky agreed, but I intervened and reminded Soni that killing Sewram would put the spotlight on him, because everyone knew of the vendetta between them.”
Naidoo said Soni had often told him that if anyone pointed fingers at him for Sewram’s death, he would get the best defence attorney that money could buy, and nothing would ever be proved against him.
Naidoo revealed that he, Soni and sergeants Ricky Naidoo and Nichal Maharaj, eventually brainstormed the idea to use a high-powered paintball gun, loaded with solid projectiles, to assault Sewram outside his surgery.
Solid projectiles would cause the most injury. The four men then went on a road trip to Pinetown in search of a high powered paintball gun, which they eventually found and purchased.
After the purchase, the four went to a scrapyard owned by Soni for some “target practice” with the weapon.
The next day, the two police sergeants carried out their task and Sewram was shot with the paintball gun loaded with solid projectiles outside his surgery.
He suffered multiple injuries to his face, neck and torso as a result of the attack and opened a case of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm at the Mountain Rise police station.
Naidoo said he had placed himself “strategically” in the Mountain Rise charge office around the time of the paintball incident and saw Sewram enter to report the assault.
“He looked totally disorientated and dazed, and had red marks on his face and neck,” he said.
The trial continues.
Daily News