Durban - Convinced that his son would never commit suicide, Amod Sayed Bobat spent 40 days investigating his death only to discover that he had been murdered.
But the devastated father was in for a greater shock.
His detective work and assistance of the Phoenix Visible Policing Unit and members of the Hawks led to another painful realisation: that the alleged killers could be his son’s friends, who made it appear as if he had taken his own life.
Three men aged between 15 and 22 appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Monday on charges of murder. The teenager was released in his parents’ custody and the other two remanded in police custody.
Father of one Zaheer Bobat, 30, who was self-employed, had left home on March 30, 2016 to visit friends at a tuck shop. According to a police source, he believed that the friends had stolen airtime from a local tuck shop and sold it to another friend for R200. He in turn allegedly sold the airtime to another person for R900.
“When the voucher codes did not work there was a dispute between Zaheer and the friends. The (friends) got Zaheer to smoke rock cocaine, and in his intoxicated state, lured him to the change room at the Grove End Sports Grounds where they assaulted and strangled him to death.”
The source said the body was then dragged to the Woodview Park and hung from a tree, using string from a curtain blind.
Amod Bobat, a businessman, said the night his son left home he told his mother, Banu, he was going to see a friend and would be back in five minutes.
“My wife went to bed and I stayed up until 3am waiting for him (Zaheer). I eventually fell asleep. The next morning two boys from the area came, saying Zaheer’s body is hanging from a tree at the park in Woodview,” he said, adding the park was visible from his home.
“I opened my back door and there was my son’s lifeless body. This image I see whenever I close my eyes. I was in shock and not convinced that he would take his own life.”
Bobat said there were too many inconsistencies. “His feet were touching the ground; he had a bust lip; his clothes had blood stains and string from a curtain blind was placed loosely around his neck,” he explained.
Bobat said he told police this was murder, not suicide. “I went back to the scene and bagged evidence; a water bottle and a cloth. I went and got the post-mortem results and handed it to police.”
He said he enlisted the help of some of his police contacts to investigate, and put up a R10 000 reward.
“Nothing will bring my son back,” he said. “Only justice will give us closure. I did this so people would stop calling him a coward.”
The Post