Leaked audio recording: trial of cops charged with Regan Naidoo's murder postponed

'LONG WAIT'

- YOSHINI PERUMAL

A LEAKED audio recording between the State and witnesses had led to the postponement of the trial of 14 policemen charged with the murder of Regan Naidoo, 32, who was allegedly killed while in custody at the Chatsworth SAPS station holding cells.

Naidoo, a security technician, was detained at the station on August 28, 2018, for questioning regarding the sale of a firearm which had been used in the murder of an alleged hitman from uMlazi, Xolani Zungu.

Zungu was shot dead in Chatsworth on August 23, 2018.

The morning after his arrest, police told Naidoo's father that he had choked on a pie and had died in the holding cells.

However, Naidoo had sustained multiple injuries, including bruising, fractured ribs, lung bruising and haemorrhaging.

A postmortem conducted by private pathologist Reggie Perumal, revealed that Naidoo had died from multiple fractures and blunt force injury to the head, and not due to choking from his food.

Initially, 22 police officers were charged for murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, torture and defeating the course of justice.

One of the accused, Sergeant Riyadh Adams, was killed in a shootout while responding to a robbery at the Pavilion Mall in 2023.