Polokwane police have ramped up the search for Rameez Patel, who, on Tuesday, did not appear at the Limpopo High Court, where he was due for the first day of his murder trial.
Search for Rameez Patel escalated
As reported by Review Online, the High Court issued a warrant of arrest for Patel after he was a no-show.
Judge President Ephraim Makgoba made the ruling, despite the fact that Patel’s defence had submitted a medical certificate confirming Patel was recovering from COVID-19.
From what we understand, the arrest warrant on Patel has been stayed until Friday 7 January 2022, when he is due to have another COVID-19 test taken, at the request of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Should he fail to show up on Friday, it’s believed the warrant of arrest will be effected and mandatory police custody will await the murder-accused.
What is Patel accused of?
The case against Patel has been a long-winded affair, to say the least.
His murder trial has been delayed countless times since he was charged in April 2015.
The professional-cage-fighter-turned-entrepreneur was booked for allegedly killing his wife Fatima, a 28-year-old who mothered his three children.
According to findings from the homicide investigation, Fatima was executed with a single shot to the head inside the couple’s apartment in Nirvana. Autopsy reports indicate the wife, at some point before her death, was strangled and suffered blunt force trauma that dislocated her jaw, possibly caused by a baseball bat that was recovered from the ceiling of the apartment.
Patel, who was the last person to see Fatima alive, has vehemently denied any involvement in his wife’s death. He has long maintained that the 28-year-old was brutally murdered by an intruder who, somehow, spared his life.
Patel’s brother, Razeen, is the State’s star witness. Testifying for the State back in April 2021, Razeen claimed that Patel had admitted to killing his wife. Not only that, but his bizarre behaviour after the incident raised red flags.
Interestingly, soon after Razeen testified against his brother, he survived a brazen assassination attempt.
Patel is also a prime suspect in the death of his mother, Mahejeen Banu Patel. The 51-year-old was fatally shot inside her home in Nirvana, in September 2017 and all evidence pointed to Patel as the alleged killer.
However, four years have come and gone without much progress in the case. Much of the delay, it’s believed, is due to a lack of witnesses willing to come forward to testify against the accused wife murderer.
Coincidentally, his father’s death also remains unsolved. 54-year-old Feroz was gunned down in what was reported as a botched robbery in August 2016. According to investigations, at the time, Feroz was forced off the road by at least four suspects who emptied cartridges on the 54-year-old.
