Husband: I couldn't kill Anni
2010-11-23 13:18
Cape Town - The husband of the Swedish tourist shot dead in Cape Town reportedly sobbed as he told a British journalist that he was hurt by rumours of his involvement in his wife’s murder, crying: "How could anyone say I killed her?"
Shrien Dewani, 31, told The Sun tabloid: "It was the end of my world.
"I feel like I've been robbed of the rest of my life."
The home care boss - now back in the UK where his business is allegedly in R70m debt - said of Anni: "I'd searched high and low for my perfect partner.
"Anni was the 'one'. Her looks, her laughter her personality, her spirit - everything about her was right for me. Why would I want to kill her? People who suggest this could not have seen us together.
"Saying I was somehow involved simply defies logic."
Driver in court
The driver of the taxi the couple used in Cape Town, Zola Tongo, appeared in the Wynberg Regional Court on Monday charged with murder, robbery and hijacking.
Tongo, 31, is set to enter a plea agreement with the State in order to assist with information about the investigation.
Shrien, from Bristol in the UK, told The Sun: "We'd just had a wonderful sushi dinner.
"We were on our way home to our hotel when our driver asked whether we'd like to see some African dancing on our way.
"It was late and we were hugging each other on the back seat and going through photographs from the safari trip we'd just been on.
"We weren't really thinking of anything but each other and sort of said, 'Whatever'.
"We liked and trusted the driver."
The husband had previously said he and his wife had decided to go for an impromptu visit to the township because she wanted to “see the ‘real Africa’ ”.
'She started to scream'
Shrien said they then went driving into Gugulethu looking for Mzoli’s restaurant at 23:00 that night, not knowing that it actually closes at 19:00. They stopped at a street when suddenly “I became conscious of a loud banging noise - then looked up and saw an African man furiously hammering an automatic pistol on the windscreen”.
“I thought the glass would break. The next thing I knew one man had shoved Zola on the passenger seat and got behind the wheel - while another with a gun was next to me and Anni.
“I tried to cover Anni with my body. She started to scream and cry out hysterically.
“The robber put the pistol to my temple and stripped my £2 000 Rado watch from my wrist. I handed him R5 000-6 000 and begged him to let us both go.
“Anni whispered to me in Gujarati so they couldn't understand that she had hidden her wedding and engagement ring. All I could think about was saving our lives,” Shried told the tabloid.
He said he tried to hide his cellphone in his underpants so he could later call for help but one of the robbers searched him and found it.
Shrien said: “He coldly put the muzzle of his gun into my ear and said: ‘Lie to me again and I will kill you both.’ I looked into his eyes and I knew instantly he was crazy enough to do it."
Contradiction
But again, this statement contradicts a previous statement from Shrien in which he said that the hijackers apparently promised they wouldn’t hurt his wife.
After throwing the driver from the vehicle and then driving at high speeds, Anni became more and more frustrated.
“I thought we were both going to be killed in a crash,” Shrien said.
“Then the man with the gun turned round and told me: ‘Shut her up now or I'll kill her’,” he said.
After giving another of her rings the hijackers then stopped the car and pulled Shrien from the vehicle.
He said: "I was clinging to Anni for all I was worth - begging them to let us both get out of the car together. But they wouldn't listen."
He said: “They couldn't get me out because the child locks were activated - so they ended up dragging me struggling and screaming out of the window.”
He was left on the side of the road while the robbers drove off with Anni.
Shrien told the tabloid how he apparently knocked on the doors of shacks in Khayelitsha - then found help from a man who was parking his car.
He then called police and was taken back to his hotel at the Waterfront.
Anni’s body was found the next morning.
Driver comforted him
Shrien said he broke down when told of his wife’s death and was comforted by Tongo.
"He was crying. It seemed the most natural thing.
"If he really has done this my faith in mankind has been totally shaken. How could someone who appeared so friendly and so trustworthy do something so inhuman?"
Shrien said of his murdered bride: "I can't bear to think about her last moments and what she must have been through with those men. But I know she loved me and must have been thinking of me."
Meanwhile, the Swedish woman’s father has also leapt to his son-in-law’s defence.
The Daily Mail in the UK reported on Tuesday that Vinod Hindocha said he loves Dewani “like a son” and will support him through the “horrendous ordeal”.
