Three men have been found guilty of the murder of an electrical engineer lecturer Chanlall Dwarika from the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) .
At the same time, one was acquitted of all charges in the Durban High Court on Wednesday.
Siyabonga Mahaye, Thobani Mhlongo, and Kwanele Makhaye were found guilty of kidnapping and killing 63-year-old Dwarika and robbing him. Their co-accused,
Sihle Mkhize was acquitted of all charges as the court said that without him, Dwarika would never be found.
Dwarika was kidnapped on May 28, 2023, and his body was found in the bushes of Durban’s notorious township, iNanda, on June 3, 2023.
On the day he was kidnapped, he had come to his investment property situated in Sea Cow Lake to conduct maintenance.
CCTV footage from the area showed Dwarika speaking to three men, who then forced him into the rear of his Honda CR-V.
When he failed to return home, his family reported him missing to the police. His pictures were circulated on social media, and MUT held a media briefing calling for his safe return. The post-mortem results revealed that his throat had been slit and partially decapitated.
Delivering her ruling, Judge Khosi Hadebe said the evidence presented by the State set out the role played by each of the accused on the day Dwarika met his gruesome death.
She stated that it was evident to the court that Mahaye, Mhlongo, and Makhaye viewed Dwarika as a source of easy money.
“It is very possible that the Dwarika owed them unpaid wages,” Judge Hadebe said.
She said Dwarika provided a shelter for the accused, he saw it fit to feed them, and he trusted them. “Unfortunately, his trust cost him his life,” she added.
She said the behaviors of the accused put them in a category of low lives, adding that the court was satisfied that the State proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
She said Mahaye was guilty of kidnapping and robbery with aggravating circumstances. According to her, the State failed to prove that he murdered Dwarika.
She said Mhlongo and Makhaye were guilty of all the charges. Discharging Mkhize on all counts, Judge Hadebe said he was a sincere witness, and his actions of going to tell his supervisor after witnessing Dwarika being killed helped police make a breakthrough in the case.
The wife of Dwarika, Janitha Dwarika, whom they had been married to for 40 years, could not utter a word as she cried after the court proceedings.
His daughter, Ayuushi Dwarika-Rajbansi, said that since the passing of her father, they had received support from other academics from MUT who checked them from time to time.
She got emotional talking about the trial. “It was quite sad to hear what my father had to endure. I wish we had known sooner and tried to help. I wish we had a fighting chance to have helped him,” she said.
Sentencing is expected on Thursday.
