Douglas Mutenda was recently released on $5 000 bail on
four counts of armed robbery, including the much publicised one at Mashwede
Towers where US$100 000 was stolen.
He is part of the gang that includes Musafare Mupamhanga,
Godfrey Mupanhanga, Spicer Takawira, Carrington Marasha, Benjamin Chitunhu and
Conwell Kasambarare, who were also freed on bail under questionable
circumstances.
They were arrested on a spate of armed robberies and their
cases are still pending before the courts. Through his legal representatives at
TK Takaindisa Law Chambers, Mutenda applied for bail at the High Court on
October 20 this year.
The State led by Mr Douglas Chesa opposed the application,
saying the prosecution had a very strong case against him.
Mr Chesa, in his opposition papers, told the court that
Mutenda led to recoveries of some of the stolen properties and there was a CCTV
footage that showed him at the crime scene.
He said Mutenda’s accomplices implicated him and there were
phone calls linking him to the offence, which left the prosecution with a very
strong case against him.
High Court Judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi dismissed
Mutenda’s bail application on grounds that he was likely to abscond and that he
was facing a serious offence.
Barely a month after his bail application was dismissed at
the High Court, Mutenda engaged a different lawyer and approached the same
court, but went before a different judge.
Mutenda engaged lawyer Mrs Concilia Maheya, who made a
fresh bail application under changed circumstances on December 8.
In the application, Mutenda argued that his co-accused,
Musafare Mupanhanga, Spicer Takawira, Benjamin Chitunhu and Conwell
Kasambarare, had been granted bail. He also argued that he had no pending cases
as the State had alleged.
Mr Chesa responded to the fresh bail application on the
same day consenting.
“The present application is based on changed circumstances,
which the respondent (State) is of the view that they tilt the scales in favour
of the applicant,” he said. “In the initial application, neither the then legal
representative nor the investigating officer who gave oral evidence in court
told the court that there were other accused persons who are facing the same
charges, already on remand and are out on bail.
“The applicant (Mutenda) is linked to the commission of the
offence through implication by his co-accused. He was arrested at his home and
no recoveries were made from him. Further, no formal identification parade was
conducted to allow the respective victims to finger the applicants as having
been part of the gang that committed the offence. The only probable link being
the CCTV coverage and call history of his cell phone.”
Mr Chesa said in his consent papers that issues of the CCTV
and call history were to be tested and determined during trial.
He said there was need to have proof from the police on
whether Mutenda was on the run or not, as there was no evidence presented
before the court in that regard.
Justice Benjamin Chikowore, acting on Mr Chesa’s consent,
granted Mutenda bail on December 9, a day after he made his application. Herald
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