The case against double murder accused, Rameez Patel has been postponed yet again at the Polokwane High Court in Limpopo, after the court satisfied itself that he has tested positive for COVID-19 virus.
The case was postponed to April 4.
Patel is accused of killing his wife, Fatima in 2015 and his mother, Mahajeen Banu-Patel in 2017.
On Tuesday Patel’s defence presented the court with a medical certificate citing that he had contracted COVID-19. The court ordered that a second test be conducted at a public hospital to satisfy itself.
Patel faces a charge of murder after his first wife, Fatima Patel was found killed at Nirvana, in Polokwane in 2015. She was bludgeoned to death at their home.
He also faces a separate murder charge for allegedly orchestrating the murder of his mother, Mahajeen Banu-Patel in 2017. Patel’s lawyer Advocate Meshack Thipe explains:
“The matter was on the roll on Tuesday, and because Mr. Patel was ill-disposed, particularly that he tested positive. We were in possession of the COVID-19 results, then the matter was then postponed again to today just to verify the authenticity of the results and indeed, the results were investigated and we’re all satisfied that indeed Mr. Patel has tested COVID-19 positive. So, on that strength parties agreed that the matter be postponed again to April, the fourth of April just to allow Mr. Patel to recover fully.”
Thipe says he was well prepared to continue with the trial this week, but he could not risk other people’s lives, because his client is Covid-19 positive.
“I wanted to proceed with the matter today, I had prepared. You can accept that since the whole of December, immediately after Christmas I prepared myself for the matter. It is unfortunate, it is not out of Mr. Patel’s own making, I had to understand if the man had tested positive. Luckily he had communicated that to me in advance. No one had suffered casualties or being infected by him as a result of that. I’m happy he had acted very responsibly in that in that regard. So yes, I’m very bit disappointed that we’re not proceeding in these two weeks, but there’s nothing we can do the man sick.”
The trial has already been postponed on many occasions since the murder of his first wife Fatima Patel.
