The lead investigator probing Babita Deokaran’s assassination ignored crucial evidence which would have unmasked the figures behind a R1 billion Tembisa Hospital extraction network, according to an investigation by News24.
Deokaran’s cellphone and her laptop were seized as evidence by police on the day of her killing but were never downloaded, examined, or analysed.
This crucial information – which may point to those who had a motive to eliminate her – was never investigated despite police holding it for seven months.
Veteran policeman and former KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Johan Booysen, said this blunder was critical, and examining such evidence was ‘investigation 101’.
‘This is an example of dereliction of duty at best and, at worst, it amounts to defeating the ends of justice.’
When the six men accused of the murder were arrested, Andrew Chauke, of the Hawks’ Johannesburg Serious Organised Crime Unit, took charge of the investigation.
Chauke could have taken these devices to the police’s cybercrimes unit for “downloading”. In this process, a forensic image of both her cellphone and laptop would be extracted.
These images could then be analysed and potentially used as evidence. This was never done.
Seven months after Deokaran was killed, Chauke returned her cell phone and laptop to her relatives at their request.
These devices were then handed over to News24’s investigations team. Cyber investigators downloaded and ‘imaged’ the phone and laptop.
A week before she was killed, Deokaran, on 11 August, sent a WhatsApp message to her direct superior, suspended Gauteng Health chief financial officer, Lerato Madyo.
Deokaran expressed concern that their lives could be in danger.
Madyo said she’d requested the head of department (HOD) to grant approval for an investigation, but Madyo never canvassed this issue with the HOD and after Deokaran was assassinated the forensic investigation was abandoned.