Friday 17 July 2020

TWO MORE MUTARE COPS ARRESTED FOR EXTORTION


BARELY two weeks after three detectives stationed at CID Mutare were arrested for extortion, two more cops from the same station have been arraigned before the courts to face criminal abuse of duty charges involving 2 300 rands.

Robert Mudhumbu (39) and Masuku Bothwell (31) recently appeared before magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe for contravening Section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23.

They were not asked to plead and were granted $5 000 bail each and remanded to July 24 for trial. The court ordered the duo not to interfere with State witnesses as well as to report every Friday at Mutare Central Police Station.

District public prosecutor, Mr Tirivanhu Mutyasira said the crime was committed on July 9 at around midnight.

“The two accused persons who are police detectives went to MPC Garage opposite Red Cross along Chimanimani Road where they approached the complainants as they were offloading their truck which was loaded with groceries from South Africa.

“They demanded some declaration forms from the truck driver and they were given. However, they insisted that the goods were not declared. The cops then demanded 2 300 rand to cover up the complainants’ offence.

“The complainants tried to negotiate with the accused persons, but they refused to budge. The complainants then handed over the money that was being demanding. After receiving the money, the suspects disappeared from the scene.

In a separate case, three detectives from CID Mutare allegedly teamed up with a civilian to demand US$400 from an illegal diamond dealer.

On Monday, they were back in court on routine remand. They are also facing extortion charges. The trio — Sithandazile Ndlovu (35), Tendai Mudhari (35) and Lawrence Kashaya (38) — are jointly charged together with Emmanuel Mapani.

They are out on $5 000 bail each. According to State papers, the suspects committed the offence on June 25. They allegedly hatched a plan to extort money from the complainant, Romeo Charles Tembo of Chikanga, Mutare.

Mapani allegedly phoned the complainant saying he had a client who wanted to buy some diamonds.

The complainant drove to pick Mapani at Trek Service Station. Once there, he was directed to Bloomwise Restaurant, where Mapani indicated that he wanted to pick up the buyers, who happened to be Ndlovu and Mudhari.

On arrival at Bloomwise Restaurant, Ndlovu and Mudhari got into the complainant’s vehicle and directed him to Macs Shopping Centre in Palmerstone.

Mudhari and Ndlovu then produced their police identification cards.
They allegedly searched the complainant’s vehicle and found a small digital scale and a money dictator.

Kashaya arrived at the shopping centre and handcuffed the complainant. He told the diamond dealer that he was under arrest for illegally dealing in diamonds.

The suspects demanded US$1000 from the complainant so that they could release him. 
They even threatened to plant some diamonds in his car if he refused to give them the money.

The complainant phoned Luckmore Chikowe, who came and gave him US$380. He added another US$20 and gave the US$400 to Mapani. Kashaya then unhandcuffed Tembo and ordered him and Chikowe to drive off.
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