Painful journey seeking justice

ALONG with the trial of Oscar Pistorius, the trial of British businessman Shrien Dewani, accused of killing his bride Anni while on honeymoon in South Africa, consumed the media and public in spectacular fashion until both trials concluded last year.

Pistorius is now in jail for the crime of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but Dewani walked free – to the disappointment of Anni’s father, according to the new book Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story.

Anni’s father, Vinod Hindocha, has spoken out by telling his story to journalist Shekhar Bhatia, relating how his family has battled to cope with their loss along with their frustration at not having full knowledge of the circumstances of her death in 2010.

Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story hit the shelves this month and it is a frank and tragic account of Anni’s life from childhood through the shooting that killed her, to the aftermath of the trial.

The Hindochas have been in South Africa a great deal over these past four years and towards the end of the book their feelings towards Dewani are made clear: “He was a disgusting individual for the way he had cheated us and Anni,” writes her father, referring not only to Dewani’s sexual preferences which came to the fore during the trial.

As recently as Christmas – when the final chapter of the book was written – the family were still wrestling with a lack of closure. They still cannot accept that the case, which started in a “shambolic” way, was dismissed, and that no one can tell them why Anni was murdered.

Vinod blames not only Dewani “such a coward, so afraid of coming out . . . he was a cheat . . . if he had been honest with her, she would have walked away and never met her death in South Africa”. He also, however, blames SA and our criminal investigation and justice systems.

Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story is published by Zebra, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

-Gillian McAinsh