Is Shrien Dewani Gay?

And finally Shrien Dewani has been extradited to South Africa to face trial!

Almost three years ago when I blogged about Shrien Dewani, extradition proceedings were going on and it was felt that they could go on for many more weeks or even months. Well, they went on for almost three years!

The core question seems to be whether Dewani is gay. This is because unless Dewani is gay, the prosecution will be hard-pressed to find a motive for the handsome, rich Dewani to hire killers to bump off his pretty and young bride.

The allegations about Dewani’s orientation have been swirling around ever since Anni’s murder. Dewani is supposed to have been a regular visitor at a gay fetish club called The Hoist, at Vauxhall. A German male prostitute named Leopold Leisser, who goes by the work name The Master, claimed that Dewani paid him GBP1,100 for three sex ¬sessions in London and the West Midlands.

Just after Dewani arrived in South Africa to face trial, it was reported that Anni Dewani had sent a honeymoon message to her cousin revealing that she had sex with 33-year-old Shrien “five times” in one night. The Police were said to have been left reeling by the text that experts have retrieved from 28-year-old Anni’s stolen BlackBerry. Naturally, if the Dewanis “did” it five times in a single night, it is unlikely that Dewani is gay. I however had my doubts about the genuineness of this report which was attributed to “sources”. Look at it this way: Anni’s text message was reportedly sent to her cousin. If Anni’s cousin had actually received such a text, Anni’s family, the Hindochas, wouldn’t be so hostile to Dewani. The Hindochas have all along been wanting Dewani to voluntarily face trial in South Africa. If the Hindochas thought that the Dewanis were having a normal married life, then they wouldn’t be fighting hard for Dewani to face justice.

Surely enough, a couple of days later, it was clarified that Anni had not sent any such sms. Rather it was stated that Anni had sent her cousin a text message to the effect that sex with her husband wasn’t to her satisfaction.

I wish we had some clarity on how the first report (which made the 5 times in a night claim) came about. The “source” had obviously not considered that if such a claim was made, the cousin who is supposed to have received the text would deny it. Also, how come no one knew that Anni had complained to a cousin about the state of her conjugal relationship with her husband? Of course it is possible that the Hindochas had passed on this information to the Prosecution and this was kept under wraps for use at the trial once Dewani arrived in South Africa. The Hindochas may have been forced to leak this information to counter the earlier insinuation. I just wonder though, when the extradition proceedings were going on, if this information had been made available, wouldn’t it have eased Dewani’s passage to South Africa?

When this trial is over, I hope the authorities in the UK and South Africa carry out a joint investigation to find out the extent of influence exerted over this trial by publicist Max Clifford and if any laws were broken as a result.