Durban — Bilal Zikhali, alleged to have stolen R1.7 million from a Hillcrest woman, in a move to have his bail application heard today in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court, has asked that his matter be stood down for police to go for a second time to verify his Overport address.
The case was set down for a formal bail application on Monday. In the previous court appearance, he had provided the court with a Durban address in Overport as he had said he would be staying in the city pending finalisation of the case.
However, police were not able to verify this, and in a bid not to have his matter adjourned for another day, his counsel Mduduzi Mbatha asked that the police take the owner of the property, who was in court, with them to verify the said address.
State Prosecutor Nomcebo Xulu said the matter is on the roll for a formal bail application, which the state is opposed to.
“The indication from the investigating officer on the affidavit is that when he attempted to verify the new address, when he reached the premises, he could not verify the address because these were business premises, and the accused was unknown at the said address. Therefore the address has not been verified. On those premises, bail is opposed. The investigating officer is here, and the address furnished was in Overport. When the investigating officer went there, he found that the premises were a block with business premises, and the defence today came with documentation with a flat number and the name of the owner of the premises. This information was not given on the last occasion. As it stands, these full particulars were not given previously,” said Xulu.
When the investigating officer went there, he found that the premises were a block with business premises, and the defence today came with documentation with a flat number and the name of the owner of the premises. This information was not given on the last occasion. As it stands, these full particulars were not given previously,” said Xulu.
“Overport is 30 minutes away. We would like to proceed with bail today because the accused is worried about the matter being adjourned to another date. We are willing to cooperate in the interest of the accused, and we ask the matter to stand down for an hour for the address to be verified. The owner of the property is here with proof of address in the form of a municipal letter,” he said.
Mbatha also said that the investigating officer, upon having problems verifying the address, could have contacted the defence, which could have assisted.
“The investigating officer has been in constant contact with the owner of the property, he has all my contact details, and we believe that he could have contacted us, and we could have assisted in the address being verified.”
The matter stood down for police to go to Overport with the property owner for verification of the address.
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