AHEAD of a new trial date, the State has revealed the alleged plot of the “Suitcase Killers” to murder Previn Pillay.
Nearly five years after the horrific discovery of Pillay’s decapitated and mutilated corpse in a burning suitcase at Hazendal Train Station in Athlone in December 2020, his alleged killers Riefaat Loofer, Glenville Jansen and Franklin van Niekerk are set to go to court on 29 April at the Western Cape High Court.
Pillay, 29, was last seen on 23 December 2020 leaving his home in Pinelands in his white Toyota bakkie, before cops were called to Hazendal station to investigate.
At the time, staff at the station saw a man dragging a large travel suitcase to the subway. They saw the suspect setting the bag alight, it started smoking, and they rushed over to put the fire out as the suspect ran away.
That is when they discovered that the suitcase contained a dismembered body. The head and one arm were missing from the corpse.
DNA tests confirmed the body to be Previn’s. His head has still not been found.
According to a new indictment this week, the trio are now facing charges of conspiracy to commit murder, robbery, murder and defeating the ends of justice.
The State alleges that at the time of his death, Pillay had gone into business with Loofer and had deposited money into his bank account.
A month before the murder, Loofer rented a property in Sea Point and the State says on 23 December 2020, cellphone records showed Loofer and Jansen were in Sea Point.
On the same day, Pillay left his home and went to meet Loofer in Sea Point but later his vehicle was driven to Matroosfontein.
According to the indictment, Van Niekerk parked the car in Parow and the next day the vehicle was taken to Elsies River where it was stripped.
Shockingly, the court documents also reveal that the cellphone records of Loofer show that on the day Pillay’s body was discovered, Loofer had booked a e-hailing cab to Hazendal Train Station from his house in Sea Point.
During the investigation, officers from the Provincial Organised Crime Unit first busted Van Niekerk, 52, at his Elsies River home in February 2021. Two months later they returned and busted Jansen, 53.
The alleged mastermind, Loofer, was traced many months later living among homeless mense under a bridge in Woodstock.
