Aunt on trial after Indian-origin boy's body found in sewer

Durban, Feb 11: A maternal aunt of a nine-year-old Indian-origin boy in South Africa has been charged with his murder after his body was found wrapped in plastic in a storm water drain following an intensive search by the local community.

Kavitha Naicker, 31, was arrested after she allegedly left a suicide note when she and the boy Shahiel Sewpujun's mother Ishara Deonarain attempted suicide by drinking a poisonous substance. Deonarain, who is still in hospital, has not been charged, but a second suspect is still at large, according to prosecutor Rakesh Singh.

Police sources told media that the wanted man is known to Naicker, Singh told magistrate Theveloshni Badal in the Verulam Magistrates Court here that the state would put forward an argument that the child's murder was premeditated, but did not provide further details. The prosecutor said Naicker had given a letter to her father in her own handwriting, confessing to the murder, before her botched suicide attempt.

The boy disappeared from Naicker's home in the sprawling Indian township of Phoenix, north of Durban, known for large-scale poverty and unemployment in the community. Neighbours were outraged that Naicker and her sister had joined hordes of locals and the police in searching for the boy after he went missing last Thursday.

Naicker was remanded for a bail application to be heard on February 17.

PTI