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Two shot dead in police custody

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Two suspected car robbers were reportedly shot dead in police custody last month, prompting the family of one of the deceased to refuse burying him until they were presented with a post-mortem report detailing the circumstances surrounding the death. According to High Court papers presented by family lawyer Tawanda Zhuwarara, police told one of the […]

Two suspected car robbers were reportedly shot dead in police custody last month, prompting the family of one of the deceased to refuse burying him until they were presented with a post-mortem report detailing the circumstances surrounding the death.

According to High Court papers presented by family lawyer Tawanda Zhuwarara, police told one of the deceaseds mother, Dorothy Chiwaridzo, that they would give her son Tendai Batsirai Dzigarwi a paupers burial if she failed to collect and bury his body within 21 days.

Chiwaridzo last Friday applied for an urgent chamber application under Case Number HC 4068 to bar the police from carrying out a paupers burial for her son because the family suspected foul play.

Dzigarwi, who was 20 years old, and his fellow accused, Emson Ngundu (age not given), were arrested on March 18 for alleged car theft and were detained at Southerton Police Station.

Chiwaridzo says she was alerted by Ngundus father, identified in court papers as Mr Ngundu, that both accused persons had been shot dead by the police on March 19, a day after their arrest, while apparently they were trying to escape from police custody.

Her son was arrested by police from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Vehicle Theft Squad. My son was arrested in my presence at House Number 207 Chamba Road, Westwood, Kambuzuma, which is my place of residence . . . As the police officers arrested my son, they severely assaulted him and this assault was perpetrated at my place of residence.

While my son was suspected of having committed a serious crime, it was still heart-wrenching and painful to watch him being sadistically assaulted without any justification. To this day, his screams and pleas for mercy still haunt me, Chiwaridzo said in her affidavit.

She said the police left with her son at around 7pm and that was the last time she saw him alive. The following day, on March 19, she said she proceeded to Southerton Police Station where police confirmed Dzigarwi was in their custody.

She said she had brought food for her son and handed it over to the police as she had been denied the opportunity to see him.

The very next day, being 20 March 2012, I sought to deliver some more food for my son only to be informed by a certain CID officer by the name of Chimbwanda that my son and two other co-accused persons were no longer in the custody of CID Vehicle Theft Squad, Chiwaridzo states in court papers.

Efforts to establish her sons whereabouts were fruitless as no one at the police station was willing to co-operate, she said. Police officers, she said, assured her they would contact her as soon as practicable with information about her son so that she could deliver food to him.

She said it was on the following day that Ngundu informed her that the two accused had been killed and that her sons body was now at the Harare Central Hospital mortuary. A post-mortem was to be carried out on March 23.

Mr Ngundu provided all the information I stated above. The police never communicated with me directly nor did they see it necessary to consult me or any of my family members, Chiwaridzo said.

The police never formally advised me of neither (sic) my sons death nor (sic) the need for a post-mortem prior to it being carried out on my son.

On the day the post-mortem was done, she said, she and other family members were present at the hospital but were denied a copy of the results.

I am informed that my son was severely tortured prior to him being shot and killed. I have no idea if the post-mortem carried out by the State-appointed pathologist investigated this allegation or even reflects such evidence.

She said in the court papers the member-in-charge at the Harare Central Hospital police post and the hospital chief executive were more concerned with generation of a burial order and never bothered to attend to my queries, concerns and questions relating to my sons death.

Chiwaridzo said she had engaged legal practitioners to have a second post-mortem done but claims the police at Harare Central Hospital said she would not be permitted to do so at the hospital mortuary.

I was further advised through my legal practitioners that the Zimbabwe Republic Police would not permit the independent pathologist that I had secured to conduct the post-mortem at the government hospital facilities where the body of my son lies.

Chiwaridzos lawyer yesterday said he was hopeful the matter would be set down for hearing soon after the Independence holiday.