Regan Naidoo police brutality case postponed again
Defence wants a magistrate from outside KwaZulu-Natal
Jeffery Mahalingan, Regan Naidoo’s uncle, and Timothy Naidoo, his father, told GroundUp that they would never stop fighting for justice. Photo: Benita Enoch
The case involving 21 police officers accused of the kidnapping, torture and murder of 32-year-old Regan Naidoo has been delayed again.
Naidoo died while in police custody on 28 August 2018.
On Tuesday, Magistrate Shoba Maharaj in the Durban Magistrates Court heard a request from the defence for a new magistrate to preside over the pretrial hearing. A magistrate had already been arranged.
The defence asked for a magistrate based outside of the province to preside over the pretrial, citing possible “personal interaction” with the accused, who because of the nature of their jobs, might have been witnesses in other cases before the court.
State Prosecutor Surekha Marimuthu agreed that the request was reasonable.
Maharaj postponed the matter until 22 February and extended bail for the accused.
Naidoo’s case has dragged on for more than five years and a pretrial date has not yet been set down.
After an investigation led by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, 22 police officers, mostly attached to the Chatsworth Police Station, were arrested in connection to Naidoo’s death.
On 19 November 2023, one of the accused, Riyadh Adam, was gunned down during a jewellery heist at Pavilion Shopping Centre.
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