THEY were the beautiful couple who seemingly had it all – glamour, wealth and deep love for each other.
Shrien Dewani, a millionaire businessman from Bristol and part of a rich Indian family, had just married the girl of his dreams – beautiful Anni Hindocha, who was from an affluent Swedish family of Indian origin.
A lavish three-day ceremony in Mumbai was followed a honeymoon in South Africa.
But five days into their luxurious break, shortly after they arrived in Cape Town, their dream turned to horror when their taxi was hijacked and Shrien was ordered out by gun point as the car swept away.
Anni was found murdered in the abandoned vehicle the following day.
But Shrien’s version of events on that tragic night soon began to raise suspicions when one of the accused told police that Shrien had ordered a contract killing on his wife.
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CCTV footage at the hotel further raised concern when it showed Shrien talking and laughing on his mobile phone the day after his wife’s death.
There were further sensational developments to come as it was revealed that Shrien had homosexual encounters with a sadomasochistic ‘rent boy’ called Leo Leisser, who was 6ft 4in, sixteen and a half stone and was known as ‘The German Master.’ He specialised in dealing with clients who wanted to be sexually dominated.
Had Shrien married Anni as a way of helping to mask this secret side to his life and then conveniently had her bumped off?
It was also revealed that Anni was not the happy bride she appeared to be. In several texts to her cousin she told how they had been fighting, and she wished they had not got engaged.
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Two days into the honeymoon she texted that she did not “feel happy at all.”
Shrien’s increasingly bizarre behaviour after her death even saw him hire celebrity PR guru Max Clifford, to help clear his name as the story hit the headlines around the world.
“It would never have crossed my mind that you would need a publicist when you are a grieving husband,” says Anni’s sister, Ami.
“All we’ve ever asked for is just to know what happened to my sister? How did she die? Who is responsible and why?”
Fifteen years on, they are still awaiting answers. In the two-part Prime Video documentary The Honeymoon Murder: Who Killed Anni Dewani, Ami and her uncle speak out, along with Shrien’s defence counsel and others such as hotel receptionist John Jonkers, who was there on that fateful night.
The newly-weds had arrived in Cape Town on November 12, 2010, where local taxi driver Zola Tongo took them to the five star Cape Grace Hotel. The following evening they arranged for Tongo to take them to the Surfside Restaurant in the Strand suburb.
Shrien told police that after the meal, Anni said that she wanted to see “the more African side of things rather than the more Westernised side of things. So the driver (Tongo) suggested that we drive through one of the township areas.”
As they slowed to turn, they were startled by a banging on the windscreen.
“An African male with a pistol ordered the driver out and got into his seat and a second man opened the back door next to us,” Shrien later said.
“They prised us apart and they held a gun to my head and said, ‘Either you leave or we’ll shoot you.’ And then they forced me out of the car.
“The car sped off and my heart was racing. I was screaming for anyone that was around. There was a male that was parking his car and he called a police officer on his mobile who drove me to back to Cape Grace.”
‘Shocking and terrifying’
Ami was at home when she get a phone call from her brother telling him that Anni had been kidnapped and was missing.
“It was shocking and terrifying,” she says. “My dad bought a ticket to Cape Town. We were waiting the whole night, wondering what could have happened and how. Then my brother called me in the morning and told me they had found the abandoned car with Anni’s dead body.”
She had been shot at close range in the neck.
Fingerprints on the taxi were on the police data base and linked to Xolile Mngeni, previously investigated for a fight in a bar. Generally considered a low life thug, he admitted to being part of the hijacking, robbery and killing and gave the name of Mziwamadoda Qwabe as the person who shot Anni.
Qwabe led police to taxi driver Zola Tongo who sensationally claimed that Shrien had said that he wanted someone to kill his wife and would pay 15,000 rand (now around £665) for it.
Tongo had then visited a friend, Mbolombo, who worked as a receptionist at the Colosseum Hotel, and told him about the offer. Mbolombo, acting as a middle man, got in touch with Qwabe, who agreed to carry out the hit.
John Jonkers, night manager of the Cape Grace Hotel, recalls: “I was on duty of the night of the murder. Mr Shrien arrived with the police officer at one o’clock and came to me at the front desk and informed me of what had happened.
“When I looked at him, for someone that was ejected out of a car, there was not even a crease on the shirt, no scratch on him and he looked like he was ready to go to a grand affair.
“What struck me at that time was that he was very calm. Your wife gets hijacked in a foreign country, in a very dangerous area… I have had people screaming at me who have lost an iPhone. And this is your wife.
“He showed me pictures of an expensive watch that he said had been stolen by the hijackers and wanted me to print a picture of it for insurance purposes.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow. You are worried about a watch when your wife has been hijacked?’ He was more concerned about his valuables then his wife.
“I found that quite strange. I believe Mr Dewani brought his wife to Cape Town to have her murdered.”
A possible motive?
As the story hit the headlines, back in the UK, Shrien made his surprise recruitment of Max Clifford.
Shrien told The Sun at the time: “I had just got married to the girl of my dreams. Why would I want to kill her? People are making unfounded, wild accusations. The real question is, what does anyone gain from killing someone they’ve just married?”
But twelve weeks before the wedding, Anni had texted her cousin saying: “Hate him. I’m not happy.”
A few weeks later, she added: “Fighting a lot with Shrien. Wish I’d never got engaged.” And on the eve of their wedding she wrote: “Crying is my new hobby.”
Crying is my new hobby
Ami
Ami had also been privy to her sister’s concerns. “A few months before their wedding, she called me and said, ‘I threw the ring back. I don’t want to get married.’ She was really upset, talking about how it was not going to work and she didn’t want to go through with it.”
It was The Sun who was contacted by Leo Leisser who revealed that he had had a relationship with Shrien while he was with Anni. The story was a sensation. Here was a possible motive for marriage and murder.
“He felt he had to hide his homosexuality and get married to Anni,” says Ami.
CCTV footage at the hotel on the day after the murder shows Shrien walking along a corridor talking and laughing on his phone.
“It feels strange that he has this huge smile on his face,” says Ami. “Why is he so happy? What kind of person did she marry? His wife has just died.”
Other footage, three days after Anni’s murder, captures Tongo arriving at Cape Grace Hotel and following Shrien, who was carrying a plastic bag, into the internet room.
When they emerge, Tongo now has the bag. This was thought to be the payoff moment that Tongo had told police about.
With evidence stacking up against him, South Africa wanted Shrien extradited but, once again falling back on his wealth, he fought it with the help of a top lawyer.
Shrien’s defence team claimed that Tongo was lying about the contract killing and that the 15,000 rand he received was payment for arranging a helicopter trip that Shrien wanted to surprise Anni with.
They stated that the murder was a kidnapping for ransom that went wrong. The plan was for the kidnappers to demand the ransom the next day and that Shrien would have been happy to pay it. But Anni must have struggled and was shot.
Hunt for answers
Mngeni was uncooperative to police and was sentenced to life in prison. Qwabe ‘was sentenced to 25 years for killing Anni, Tongo for 18 years and Mbolombo ‘the middle man’ co-operated fully and received no prison sentence.
Shrien Dewani was charged with murder, kidnapping, robbery and obstructing the administration of justice. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In April 2014, he came to trial, almost four years after Anni’s murder, for arranging the murder of his wife.
“Shrien was just looking straight ahead in the dock,” recalls Ami, who was there with her family. “He didn’t even look at us. We were hoping for a trial where we would get everything on the table. If that would have meant he was guilty, so be it.”
Shrien’s defence team encouraged him to admit he had sexual relations with male prostitutes.
In court he said: “I have had sexual interaction with both males and females. I consider myself to be bi-sexual. My sexual interactions with males were mostly physical experiences or email chats with people I met online or in clubs.”
Many observers thought the prosecution had a water tight case, but when Tongo took the stand, despite sticking to his story, he struggled to remember things properly under questioning.
The judge ruled, “There are undoubtedly aspects of Tongo’s evidence which implicated the accused but his evidence was of such poor quality that one simply does not know where the lies and the truth begins. The accused is found not guilty as charged.”
Shrien walked free from the court with angry crowds shouting after him.
“We wanted him to be cross-examined but the case was dismissed when only half of the trial was done,” says Ami. “Of course, we were devastated. We felt like we had been let down.”
Heartache remains
Shrien Dewani maintains his innocence. In a statement to London Coroner’s Court in 2015, he said: “Each of the gang members did a deal with the authorities to gain either full immunity or vastly reduced sentences in return for providing evidence against me.
“It is the evidence of these proven liars that led to a witch hunt against me and the resulting failure to pursue the truth of what happened that night.”
But the heartache remains for Anni’s family.
“Anni’s death has affected the family really hard,” says Ami. “She is still in our minds. For the first ten years, my mum and dad had a shrine for Anni on a table in their home and lit a candle every day.
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“It’s a nice thing to do but I would like to see them move on. However, it’s difficult when you don’t know what really happened. There are so many questions. It’s impossible to move on.”
The Honeymoon Murder: Who Killed Anni Dewani? airs on Prime Video on Sunday November 16
