Wife killer Manilall's bail extended
Sunesh Manilall has yet again delayed serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife.
|||Durban - Sunesh Manilall has yet again delayed serving a life sentence for the murder of his wife after applying for his bail to be extended on Monday.
Manilall, a Howick businessman, was expected to surrender himself to the authorities this weekend after his appeal against his conviction was dismissed by Pietermaritzburg High Court Judge Piet Bezuidenhout in a reserved judgment last week.
However, Manilall brought an application before the judge late on Monday afternoon for an extension of his R40 000 bail pending an application for leave to appeal Bezuidenhout's judgment to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).
The application was granted with strict conditions, including that Manilall was not permitted to travel outside the province.
Manilall's attorney, Kogilan Chetty, confirmedon Monday that the application for leave to appeal to the SCA was lodged and would be couriered to Bloemfontein today (Tuesday).
Manilall was convicted, with the woman he later married, Mumtaz Osman, and another man, Victor Mbatha, of orchestrating his wife, Monika Manilall's murder, in February 2006.
Monika was shot dead in her Howick home by four men found to have been hired to carry out the murder for a fee of R10 000.
The trial judge, the late KZN judge president Herbert Msimang, ruled that Manilall and his lover, Osman, assisted by Mbatha, had hired men to murder Monika because she had threatened to divorce her husband after finding out about his affair.
Manilall, Osman and Mbatha were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Manilall subsequently petitioned the SCA for leave to appeal against his conviction, which was granted.
In June 2011, he was released on R40 000 bail pending his appeal to a full bench.
Manilall and Osman (who is serving her life sentence at Westville Prison) have since divorced and Manilall has again remarried.
In his judgment dismissing Manilall's appeal, Bezuidenhout rejected Manilall's claims that Osman arranged the murder without his knowledge.
Bezuidenhout found that the judgment of the trial court was detailed and well-reasoned.
He added that Manilall's version was "inherently improbable and correctly rejected by the trial court".
The judge found that Manilall was guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
Daily News