Durban — In May, when the murder trial relating to Chatsworth pensioner Jinsee Ram resumes, the court will hear the defence case. The State wrapped up its case on Thursday, after having called three more witnesses.
Ram was allegedly strangled to death during a robbery at her Kharwastan home in 2020, during which more than R80 000 was allegedly taken. Her daughter Sangetha Prithipaul, who witnessed the murder, was assaulted in the robbery. Prithipaul’s laptop and cellphone were also snatched during the incident.
Bheki Msomi stands accused of murder, attempted murder, and robbery with aggravated circumstances, and is on trial in the Durban High Court.
He had initially been charged with Simphiwe Cele, who was Jinsee’s employee. However, Cele was deemed unfit for trial and is at a state psychiatric hospital.
The court heard how Cele had been known to Ram and her family for 30 more than years.
A State witness, Mthethunzima “Stars” Mpepho, who was one of the four assailants who entered Ram’s home, has already testified, as has Prithipaul.
On Thursday, the police officer who accompanied Msomi after his arrest to verify his address and found Prithipaul’s laptop at the Ndwedwe homestead took the stand.
Warrant Officer Ajith Singh said that, while he had not arrested Msomi, he had been tasked with booking him out of the Chatsworth SAPS holding cells and taking him to verify his address and obtain his identity document.
“The accused directed us to the address in Bhamshela, Ndwedwe. On arrival, we found that the structure he lived in was locked. There were other people living at the homestead who helped us unlock the structure, which consisted of a dining room and two bedrooms. The accused directed me to his bedroom, which had a single bed and a single wardrobe. He told me his ID was in the wardrobe,” he said.
Singh said the ID was under some clothes, and that he had also found a black Samsung laptop there.
“When I questioned him about the laptop, the accused said it belonged to him. I told him I was seizing it as an exhibit, as a laptop had been taken in the commission of the crime he had been arrested for.”
Previously the court had heard from Mpepho how, after fleeing Ram’s house, he and Cele had caught up with each other in some bushes and each had taken R10 000 of the stolen money. When they gathered with Msomi and Luvo Mtshezane (the other assailant who died), they again shared the money equally (R4 900 each).
On the stand, Msomi’s sister, Nombuso, testified that on that day of the robbery, her brother had come to the shop she owned in the informal settlement of Burlington and left R4 000, which he said he would return to collect.
“That had been between 9am and 10am, but he didn’t say whose money it was or where he had got it. He returned between 12pm and 1pm and took the money, and said he was leaving for home in Ndwedwe.”
The investigating officer, Sergeant Ndumiso Khambule, told the court that when he had gone to arrest Msomi, he had found two cellphones in his room as well as R1 500 in cash.
He said that one of the two cellphones found had fit the description of the one that had been taken from the robbery – a Huawei with a cracked screen.
He said the laptop and cellphone had been identified later at Chatsworth police station by Prithipaul as the items taken from her home. She had boxes with serial numbers for both the devices, which corroborated with the stolen items.
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