The South African police replaced the lead investigator Hilton Botha in the murder case against Paralympian Oscar Pistorius.

Hilton Botha, the investigating officer in the Pistorius murder case is facing seven charges of attempted murder for allegedly firing shots at a minibus taxi carrying seven occupants.

Previously South African police spokesman Brigadier Neville Malila said that the court had decided to charge Botha, there would be an internal disciplinary investigation which would decide whether to keep him on the case: “At this stage there are no plans to take him off the Pistorius case.”

It has also been claimed that Botha was drunk at the time of the incident.

Botha told that the incident was as a result of his investigation into the murder of Denise Stratford, whose body was stuffed into a drain.

“My blood was never tested for alcohol in the aftermath of the shooting. I wasn’t drunk,” Botha said.

He said shots were fired at the taxi after it “tried to push us off the road”. Botha told Eyewitness News he shot at the taxi’s wheels and that though he couldn’t see who was in the vehicle, “no one was hurt”.

Botha was first charged back in 2009 but the charges were then provisionally withdrawn. The matter was then referred to the director of public prosecutions (DPP).

Botha: “I don’t understand why the case was reinstated. I can only think this is linked to my work on Oscar Pistorius.”