Dewani charity funds disappear

When Anni Dewani was murdered last year, her distraught brother-in-law, Preyal Dewani, started a fund-raising campaign in her name to benefit a school in India.

But, as the UK's Daily Star reported, there are serious misgivings about what has happened to the thousands of pounds donated to SEWA UK, which was supposed to deposit the money into the school's account.

Anni's husband, Shrien Dewani, is accused of orchestrating her murder. Last month a UK court ruled that he may be extradited to South Africa to stand trial.

Preyal set up a page for Anni on the JustGiving website but surprisingly it has been cancelled.

"We're very sorry, page 'annidewani' has been cancelled. The owner of the page [has] cancelled it. Donations can no longer be made to this page," a message by the JustGiving team read.

According to the Daily Star, more than £11000 (about R126921) had been collected and the page was supposed to be in operation until 2015.

But in March the UK's Charity Commission stepped in to investigate where the money had gone.

Shri Pramod Gajanan Kulkarni, treasurer of an organisation supporting the school in India, told the newspaper that the school had not received the money.

"The funds have not been deposited in our account yet," Kulkarni told the newspaper.

But a spokesman for the Charity Commission confirmed to the newspaper that SEWA UK had received the funds from the Just Giving website.

"We received reassurances from the charity that it would continue to liaise with the school to apply the funds as intended. We provided the charity with advice, including the requirement to use the funds for the purposes for which they were raised," the spokesman told the Daily Star.

However, the newspaper could not reach SEWA UK for comment.