Bittersweet birthday

Cape Town

Anni Hindocha’s birthday is a painful day for her family who were left mourning after she was murdered while on honeymoon in Cape Town five years ago.

But this year the circumstances are even more dire, with Vinod Hindocha celebrating his daughter’s birthday from a hospital bed after his arm was ripped off in a lift accident.

In a picture uploaded by the 65-year-old engineer on to Facebook, Vinod and his wife Nilam pose with a birthday cake for Anni.

He wrote: “Happy Birthday little Angel. Miss U for ever. We R celebrating this Birthday In Gothenburg hospital,love U for EVER.”

Vinod was admitted to hospital last Tuesday after he had been working on a lift which crashed while he was inside. His brother, Ashok, told the Daily News’s sister paper, the Cape Argus, that Vinod’s arm had been outside of the lift when it dropped, causing his arm to be severed between the elbow and shoulder.

He was taken to a hospital in Gothenburg, in Sweden, and the arm was reattached in an 18-hour operation.

Ashok said it would take more than a year for the nerves to grow back and for the limb to regain its strength and movement.

“There is no justice in this world. Why must bad things happen to such good people?”

Last year the Hindocha family were devastated when Shrien Dewani, charged with orchestrating Anni’s death, was acquitted of all charges in the Western Cape High Court.

Anni would have turned 33 on Thursday.