Narandas never fitted with electronic tracker

Correctional Services failed to fit an electronic monitoring tag to convicted killer and fugitive, Rajiv Narandas - despite it being one of his bail conditions.

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Durban - The Department of Correctional Services has been accused of breaching its own security measures by failing to fit an electronic monitoring tag to convicted killer and fugitive, Rajiv Narandas, who missed his deadline last week to present himself at prison.

Narandas was out on R100 000 bail before the Constitutional Court last Tuesday turned down his appeal for a hearing to have his conviction and sentence set aside.

He was to serve 15 years in jail for stabbing to death Veenand Singh in Sandton in 2008.

Basantha Sannasy, Singh’s partner at the time of his death, on Tuesday said she had lost faith in law enforcement agencies.

“We feel that our well-being as witnesses, family and friends of the deceased has been compromised in that (none of us) has been informed about the killer’s disappearance.

“How can he go missing yet one of his bail conditions was that he be fitted with the electronic bracelet to monitor his movements? Was it even put on him? This man has had free rein for eight years while the family and friends of Veenand struggled to make sense of this heinous crime.

“He flaunted himself in newspapers with new girlfriends and flashy cars and posts of his businesses whilst we struggled to cope,” she said.

She also said: “As witnesses, we were never contacted to alert us that he was on the run, thus putting all witnesses and their families at possible risk.”

Earlier this month, when Narandas was granted bail in the Johannesburg High Court pending his Constitutional Court application, the Daily News reported the conditions imposed on him included that he must wear an electronic monitoring device, which is understood to work like a GPS tracker.

But according to a police source, this device was never fitted.

The reason for this was unclear and there might not have been one available at the time, the source said.

Daily News