Vinod Hindocha’s recent book is the real story of a father whose daughter was murdered While honeymooning near cape town
Vinod Hindocha screams his heart out in the explosive memoir, Anni Dewani: A Father’s Story. It’s a riveting, frank and heartbreaking story from the perspective of a father who recounts how he and his family coped with the dreams of their daughter’s future extinguished and then brutally crushed. Even after four years of his daughter’s murder while on her honeymoon in South Africa, the father has not been able to forgive and forget.
The-father turned-author opens up and shares his travails in this true tale that took place in 2010 in South Africa, when newly-weds Shrien and Anni Dewani were kidnapped at gunpoint near Cape Town. Anni was found brutally murdered in the back seat of a taxi a few hours later.
“We decided to write this book a year ago, when we realised that Anni had over 2,000 followers on ‘Anni what really happened’ Facebook page. Also, I thought this would help release a lot of tension and pressure that was mounting within me and at the same time tell her fans who the real Anni was. I had to go to a psychiatrist for a year to get peace of mind, but I still can’t come out of it. Although I felt relieved after penning my thoughts, writing this book wasn’t easy for me. I was shattered and broke down into tears several times during the days I was writing, but I was determined to complete it and I’m glad I succeeded. I started writing the book in Sweden and ended in South Africa,” says Anni’s father, Vinod, an electrical engineer with Mariestads El Automization.
Recounting the wedding, Vinod says the Hindocha family was thrilled to host the lavish wedding. He states, “Anni was introduced to Shrien through family friends and although she didn’t like him in the beginning, she was wooed by him. He sent her flowers at work in Sweden and later impressed her by taking her to Paris in a charter jet and that’s how she fell into his trap. She was excited about her wedding and planned the extravagant celebrations herself. It was a lavish affair and one that surpassed all weddings that I’ve attended in my lifetime. But she wasn’t keen to go to South Africa for her honeymoon. She probably went ahead as she didn’t want to hurt Shrien. I had spoken to her four hours before she died and she told me in Swedish, ‘Papa, I have a lot to tell you but will do that on Tuesday, when I come back to the UK.’ He is gay and wanted to live like that and use Anni as a shield, so nobody would come to know he is gay. We came to know that he had googled gay websites on his first night and again on his honeymoon. Anni had found this out and probably this was the reason of her death.”
The book is a dad’s heartbreaking account of his treasured daughter’s life that was brutally cut short. The family has still not been able to reconcile itself with the court’s verdict and a future without the beautiful daughter. Vinod rues, “Anni’s death has not only broken me, but our whole family is torn apart, including my wife, my son and my daughter. I never knew her husband was gay. When I first came to know of the German master, it was shocking to hear that this man bought sex from him. Shrien had paid this male prostitute thrice and he crossed all limits for sex sessions with him. Now Shrien has come to SA, and goes free after 14 weeks of trial!”
