Cape Town - A top policeman in the province, facing charges alongside Western Cape police head Arno Lamoer, is accused of knowingly breaking the law by helping a businessman buy a dead man’s pistol from a crime exhibits storeroom.
Brigadier Darius van der Ross, cluster commander for Stellenbosch, allegedly bent the rules when helping Plattekloof businessman Mohamed Saleem Dawjee get the gun, which Dawjee wanted to give as a gift to a friend.
Last week Van der Ross appeared in the court along with Lamoer, Dawjee, Dawjee’s son Mohamed Zameer, and two other brigadiers, provincial head of inspectorate Kolindhren Govender, and his wife, Bellville station commander Sharon Govender.
The group faces 109 charges, including ones of corruption and racketeering.
They are expected back in court in June.
A draft indictment details how Van der Ross allegedly went about helping Dawjee get a pistol.
It said that in July 2013 Van der Ross approached a colleague stationed at the Cape Town Central police’s exhibits office, and asked for a list of all 9mm pistols there because a friend wanted to buy one.
According to the draft indictment, police had the previous month searched a widow’s home for drugs, and seized an unlicensed Norinco pistol.
The pistol had belonged to the woman’s husband, who died the year before.
After it was seized, the pistol was handed into the Cape Town Central police station exhibits storeroom.
The draft indictment said the widow was then investigated for having an unlicensed firearm, but was not prosecuted as she claimed she forgot about the pistol after her husband’s death.
Normally the pistol would have been destroyed.
“(Van der Ross) decided that (Dawjee) should immediately take possession of the Norinco, despite the fact that neither (Dawjee) nor (his friend) had a licence to possess it,” the draft indictment said.
In July 2013, it continued, Van der Ross called a colleague, a police captain, to his office and announced that Dawjee, also present, was the buyer of the pistol.
“(Dawjee) then handed (the captain) R1 000 in cash as the ‘purchase’ price.”
The indictment said Van der Ross and Dawjee then waited while the captain took the money to the widow, also taking a statement from her “purportedly confirming that she had inherited all her deceased husband’s belongings, including his firearms”.
This did not comply with the requirements of a form she filled in, and the captain then went on to complete another form falsely saying the widow, as a firearms licence holder, granted permission to Dawjee to have the pistol.
Weekend Argus