Durban - There were no signs of forced entry into the Kandasamy home, which ruled out the possibility the triple murders were the result of a house robbery gone wrong.
This was the evidence on Wednesday of Constable Zachariah Zungu, the first police officer who arrived at the Kandasamy house in Chatsworth on December 30, 2013, where the bodies of Versha ‘Mala’ Kandasamy and her children, Merlarisa, 18, and 16-year-old Megandran were found.
Husband and father, Mogamberry ‘Rajen’ Kandasamy, pleaded not guilty this week, in the Durban High Court, to their brutal murders.
At the start of the trial his attorney, Siven Samuel, said his client was exercising his right to remain silent.
Samuel had submitted to the court that Kandasamy’s last memory, before waking up in Albert Park on December 31, was leaving a friend’s house with his wife in the early hours of December 29 after a night out together. He awoke in the park, Samuel said, wearing the same clothes he had on for their night out.
State witness, Ashley Ganesh, had testified to seeing Kandasamy on December 30 lying on the pavement across the road from his shop. When he woke Kandasamy to ask if he needed help, Ganesh said Kandasamy did not say much, but did not seem to be in his right senses. He said Kandasamy could have been drunk or sick because he vomited after waking up.
Ganesh said Kandasamy was wearing a white shirt and grey pants but had no shoes. He had given Kandasamy bus fare home. Samuel told the court his client did not have any memory of this and did not dispute this evidence.
On Wednesday, Samuel asked Zungu if the items he saw in bin bags in the passage of the house and the bedroom where the bodies were found were evidence that a house robbery had taken place.
“No,” Zungu replied.
He said he had walked around the property before going in and saw no signs of forced entry.
Kandasamy’s neighbour, Oliver Munderamuthu, had testified to climbing through an open bathroom window to get into the house, and of screaming to police to break down the front door after finding the bodies.
When Samuel questioned Zungu on how Munderamuthu had no problem getting in through this window and therefore easy for a criminal to do the same, Judge Shyam Gyanda pointed out that Munderamuthu had a smaller and lighter frame than Zungu.
He also said the neighbour had to climb on to the unstable car port from his property to get to the window upstairs.
Zungu also ruled out that the murder could have been as a result of a robbery.
The State alleges the Kandasamy couple had been experiencing marital discord some time before the murder.
During the early hours of December 29, the couple returned to their Chatsworth home after spending the night out with family and friends. It is alleged that after Mala had gone to bed, Kandasamy armed himself with the two wooden maces and went to the room where he repeatedly struck her on the head.
At some point in this attack, their children entered the bedroom and were also struck repeatedly on their heads with the wooden maces. According to the indictment, Kandasamy then fled the scene.
The trial continues.
Daily News