Durban - After two weeks of heartbreaking evidence in court of his wife’s infidelity, Sagren Govindasamy says he is relieved his name has been cleared by evidence in the State’s case.
Govindasamy spoke to the Daily News outside the Durban High Court, on Thursday, after senior advocate Cheryl Naidu wrapped up the evidence in the State’s case.
He said people looked at him differently since his wife and daughters’ murders, and some said he had killed them.
The accusations and the gossiping made his loss even more unbearable. But he is now consoled by the fact that the exceptional work done by
the police in collecting the evidence would prove who killed his family.
Colin Pillay, his wife’s lover, had been placed on the scene through
DNA evidence, CCTV footage and a list of witnesses.
“In the beginning, people blamed me for the murders of my wife and daughters; I could tell by the way people looked at me. Some I heard were saying that I had killed them. I had to leave the flat and move in with my mother because I needed support and to be around people who believed that I did not do this,” he said.
Pillay, 46, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Jane Govindasamy and her daughters Denisha, 22, and Nikita, 16, and the theft of three cellphones and R1800 from the Govindasamy home on September 20.
Pillay admitted at the start of the trial last month that he was in a relationship with Jane. Govindasamy was ruled out as the murderer after police confirmed his alibi: that he was at work when the murders took place.
“It’s been heartbreaking and disturbing to hear the evidence; some of the things I was not aware of. I knew about the affair although I had thought they had stopped. During the trial, I heard that Pillay would spend time in my house when I was not there. I heard that my wife’s colleagues knew another man as her husband, and that I was known as her husband’s brother, was a heartbreaking revelation,” he said.
Govindasamy said he was looking forward to the end of the trial so he could get closure.
“It was disturbing to hear that my wife did these things to me, the husband who took care of her and did everything for her. I still battle to sleep and I am trying to put the pieces of my life together. I want this whole nightmare to be over so that I can move on with my life,” he said.
The defence is expected to begin presenting its case on Monday, with Pillay taking the witness stand to testify. In a statement read in court by his lawyer Amanda Hulley at the beginning of the trial, the tow truck driver said he was not at the house when women were murdered.
However, evidence by the investigating officer was that Pillay had
made a statement, admitting to having been on the scene, but not to killing the victims.
The trial continues.