The Durban Magistrates Court has again refused to probe the circumstances of an identification parade of Ferrel and Darren Govender, the brothers accused of killing Durban businessman, Shailen Singh.
Singh was killed on December 29, 2024, on Meridian Drive in Umhlanga.
On Monday the court heard arguments from the State and the accused’s lawyers with the on whether the brothers should be granted bail. The State has alleged that the motive behind Singh’s killing was a love triangle between him and Ferrel.
In the previous session, it was agreed that on Monday the court would hear heads of arguments from the defence and the State.
However, advocate Paul Jorgensen who is not representing the accused but represents the woman in the middle of the love triangle, said he wants to make an application on behalf of his client.
The woman, who cannot be named for security reasons, claimed that the State brought inaccurate information to the court. She said she was never asked to provide a statement.
The court refused this application.
Heads of arguments were expected to be presented however, the defence counsels questioned why the State was not bringing in a document stating what happened at the identification parade.
The case’s investigating officer Warrant Officer Kumarasan Bob Pillay, in his affidavit stated that during the identification parade, the eyewitness to the shooting did not point to Ferrel as the shooter or as someone who was at the crime scene.
The defence had previously attempted to put this document before the court but the request was dismissed.
Advocate Christo Van Schalkwyk, acting on behalf of Darren Govender, said they want to know if another person was pointed out by the eyewitness.
“Was someone else identified, was more than one person identified,” he asked.
Senior Attorney Ravindra Maniklall, who represents Ferrel Govender said as an officer of the law he could not let this pass.
He said he was at the identification parade and at the time he was representing both the brothers and the only eye witness did not point either of them.
“The witness pointed out someone else and this works against the State. I can’t sit here and let the court have any doubts about what happened,” he said.
The State’s senior public prosecutor Nkululeko Msiya reminded the court that it refused to entertain the issue of the identification parade.
“I sound like a broken record; they are trying again, we believe that this application has no merits,” he said.
Msiya said they had plenty of case law to support this. He further said they were avoiding turning a bail application into a trial.
“They (the defence) are seeking this document to prepare themselves for the trial,” he said.
He said the state would use the document from the identification parade at a later stage, with other evidence.
“This would be properly ventilated during the trial. Which is why we are not denying what happened at the identification parade,” said Msiya.
He said the document being sought by the defence contained the name of a witness and that they sought to protect all witnesses in this matter as there was a likelihood that they would be interfered with.
He said the investigation has not been completed and he accused the defence of wanting to get to the merits of the case in the bail application.
Advocate Michael Hellens, instructed by Maniklall during arguments, told the court that Ferrel is not a flight risk as his passport is with the police and his homes are in the country. The matter was postponed for Thursday for the continuation of arguments before a decision on bail can be made.