'Dre Boyz gang member' fails in bid to appeal murder sentence

'LESSER ROLE'

- NADIA KHAN [e-mail]

PRAVENDRAN Perumal, who was convicted of the 2008 murder of businessman Kelvin Claude Naidoo in a drive-by shooting in Chatsworth, has failed in his bid to appeal his life sentence.

The alleged Dre Boyz gang member argued he played a lesser role in the crime, but Judge Esther Steyn refused his application for leave to appeal in the Durban High Court yesterday (Tuesday).

Perumal, a tow-truck operator of Malvern, was arrested and charged for the murder of 33-year-old Naidoo, a clothing store owner, and the attempted murder of his three employees in 2008.

Duncan Arumugam, owner of the Dre Boyz taxi fleet, and Brandon Govender, unemployed, both of Chatsworth, were also arrested and charged for Naidoo’s murder.

During the trial in 2010, it was reported in the POST that Naidoo’s vehicle was sprayed with bullets from high-calibre weapons in a drive-by shooting along Cashew Avenue in Crossmoor, Chatsworth, on April 9, 2008.

The trio were arrested in July that year.