Teen witness accused of embellishment

Rohaena Naidoo has accused her stepfather Inderesan Maistry of being the mastermind behind his wife's murder. Photo: Supplied

Rohaena Naidoo has accused her stepfather Inderesan Maistry of being the mastermind behind his wife's murder. Photo: Supplied

Published Jul 31, 2015

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Durban - A 15-year-old witness was accused on Thursday of adding to and embellishing her police statement to implicate her stepfather, who is standing trial for her mother’s murder.

However, Rohaena Naidoo stood firm and also denied conspiring with her uncle, who testified earlier this week before acting Durban High Court Judge Burt Laing, to implicate Inderesen “Alvin” Maistry.

Soraya “Charmaine” Naidoo had been murdered in February 2014 after she had been taken at gunpoint from her home during a robbery. Her body was found in uMbumbulu. She had been strangled and stabbed.

Naidoo’s husband, Maistry, and his co-accused, Bongani Manyathi and Mandlenkosi Jobe, have pleaded not guilty to the charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

It is alleged Maistry had planned the murder and hired Jobe to assist him. Jobe then allegedly hired Manyathi and another man, Sifiso Joyisa, to carry out the crimes.

Joyisa last year pleaded guilty to Naidoo’s murder and was sentenced to 40 years in jail.

In his plea, he said Jobe had hired him and Manyathi to kill Naidoo, but said Maistry had been “the boss” who had ordered the murder. During her evidence in chief, Rohaena told the court she had texted Maistry during the robbery, from the room they were all being held in, and when he did not reply she telephoned him, saying they were being robbed.

Maistry, she said, told her to let the robbers take what they wanted. When she allegedly told him they were taking her mother, she said he replied “And then?” She said she cut the call afterwards.

She also testified about the couple’s “tense” relationship and of hearing Maistry threaten to hire two black men to rape and kill Naidoo during a heated argument.

Maistry’s advocate, Shane Matthews, said Rohaena and her uncle, Junaid Narasiah, and other State witnesses had not implicated Maistry in the crimes on the night of the incident when they made their statements to the police, but did so in a second statement taken after Maistry’s arrest.

On Thursday Matthews said according to his client, Rohaena never said the robbers were taking her mother, during their phone call. Instead, Maistry alleged Rohaena just said they were being robbed and he had told her to let them take what they wanted. It was at this point, Matthews said, Rohaena cut the call.

Rohaena denied this.

“Are you aware he attempted to call you back immediately afterwards and you cut the call,” Matthews asked her.

“No,” Rohaena replied.

Matthews then questioned Rohaena on the impression she gave the court when she said Maistry came home an hour later, dropped off her uncle Shabeer and then drove off without speaking to anyone.

According to Maistry, Matthews said he was home six or seven minutes later and that when he arrived he had spoken to the security guard in the area who pointed out the direction Naidoo’s car had taken.

“(Alvin) decided to drop off Shabeer to be with you all and he had gone off in that direction,” Matthews said.

“I didn’t know,” Rohaena replied.

On the comment she overheard Maistry telling Naidoo during a heated argument, Matthews put it to Rohaena that Maistry never said this and that she had made it up to implicate him. She denied this.

During re-examination by state advocate Nadira Moosa, Rohaena denied adding to and embellishing her police statement, and also denied conspiring with Narasiah to implicate Maistry.

Taxi driver, Nicholas Myawo, also testified on Thursday. He said he was approached by a man on February 17 about a job he had for him in Amanzimtoti. The man took his number and said two people would contact him.

He testified to meeting two men at the Galleria Mall and was instructed to follow their car. When the car stopped, he said the two men had taken out a big television set and speakers and put it in his taxi. The men jumped in, left the car there and he transported them to a Caltex garage in North Beach.

The trial continues.

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