‘Suicidal’ Brit-Indian honeymooner granted bail over father’s assurance to keep him “safe”

LONDON - A British court has granted bail to Shrien Dewani, the Brit-Indian millionaire who tried to commit suicide months after being accused of murdering his wife during their honeymoon in Cape Town last year, after his father assured that he would do his level best to keep him “safe and prove his innocence”.

Earlier, the South African authorities had urged a British Judge to cancel the Indian-origin businessman’s bail, saying that there was an increased risk that he will kill himself or try to abscond, The Telegraph reports.

Thirty-one-year-old Dewani, who is currently in London fighting his extradition case to South Africa, had swallowed up to 46 sleeping pills at his home in Bristol on Sunday. He was immediately rushed to the hospital, and is now under medication.

During the court hearing, Sherien’s father Prakash Dewani pointed at his son from the witness box and said: “We will do everything as a family to keep him safe and prove his innocence to the South Africans. We will do every single thing to make sure he gets better. I want him to be safe.”

“My son is innocent, I know he is innocent, there is no way my son would have done something like that,” he added.

Rejecting claims of Ben Watson, representing the South African authorities, that Dewani’s bail should be revoked, District Judge Howard Riddle allowed the murder suspect to continue living with his family.

Anni Dewani, Shreins’s wife, was shot when a taxi the couple were travelling in was hijacked in the Gugulethu township on the outskirts of Cape Town on November 13.

The taxi driver had claimed that Dewani had paid him and two other men to kill his wife. Dewani, however, has denies any wrongdoing. (ANI)