The case against two police officers accused of raping two sisters has been dropped due to a lack of evidence.
|||The case against two police officers accused of raping two sisters in simultaneous incidents last year has been dropped due to a lack of evidence.
The sisters were allegedly raped separately but at the same time by four men in Sunninghill last year.
But, while the criminal case has been dropped, both sides are now planning to pursue the matter civilly by suing each other.
The lawyer representing the two police officers, Kamesh Maharajh, said the officers were celebrating this morning. He said the facts represented themselves.
“The police had a cast-iron alibi right from the start,” said Maharajh. “The trackers on their vehicles showed they weren’t at the scene and the DNA evidence has come back showing it did not match the men.”
He said the officers had faced a disciplinary inquiry within the police and they were banned from using their firearms. Now that the case has been dropped, these internal disciplinary measures might also be dropped.
He said he had known one of the officers for 15 years and worked for the police pro bono (without charging them). They now intended suing the sisters.
The lawyer representing the sisters, Ian Levitt, said: “We are absolutely outraged that the case has been dropped. The investigation was a disgrace and it gives credence to why 90 percent of all rape cases are unsolved in SA.”
Levitt said it was noted on the J88 forms of both women that a white liquid was found in both of them. “So how did the forensic report come back saying there was no liquid?” Levitt said. “It’s highly suspicious.”
One of the sisters reported at the time that police looked for forensic evidence in her car only four days after the alleged incident.
“We still don’t even know what evidence was found in that car,” said Levitt.
He said papers had been served on the police minister and both the national and provincial commissioner, informing them that summons will soon be served on them.
Andre Snyman of eBlockwatch, who met the women in three meetings, said there was no doubt in his mind that they had been “brutally raped and sodomised”. He said they were highly traumatised.
“There are so many questions. One of them is why the police did not arrest the women when they were obviously drunk,” Snyman said.
The sisters had been driving home from an office Christmas party on December 2 when two officers stopped them in Paulshof, Sandton.
They claim that the officers warned them for driving while drunk and ordered the 27-year-old to sleep over at her 24-year-old sister’s home. The older woman said she dropped off her sister and drove home along Witkoppen Road, where the officers stopped her and allegedly took turns raping her.
Meanwhile, the sister who had been dropped off realised she had left her house keys in her car, which was parked at Montecasino. She chased after her sister’s car in a bid to flag her down. It was then that she was also raped – allegedly by police officers, although they were not charged.
The officers, aged 28 and 43, denied involvement in the 27-year-old’s rape but admitted to having stopped her car that night.
They said in their affidavits that when they caught up with the driver, she was so drunk she could barely stand. - The Star