TWO police officers based in Chipinge and two members of the neighbourhood watch committee on Tuesday appeared before a Chipinge magistrate facing murder charges following the mysterious death last week of a suspect they had been sent to arrest.
OBEY MANAYITI,STAFF REPORTER
The four — Constables Carlison Chinyowa (24) and Fedelis Gomba (23) from Chipinge Urban Police and neighbourhood watch committee members Ernest Chiororo (33) and Patson Dungunye (40) — are being held as the prime suspects in the murder case.
Magistrate Waini Makamera heard that on November 28, the four were assigned to arrest a theft and assault suspect, Barava Mashava of Greenlove Farm in Chipinge.
It is alleged that Mashava bolted out of his house and fled into the night after the police officers summoned him to come out. The court heard that the following morning, Mashava’s wife, Phuresa Sithole, found her husband lying dead 50 metres away from their house, prompting her to make a police report.
The deceased’s body was taken to Mutare Provincial Hospital for post-mortem and it was established that he had succumbed to head injuries. The four have since been granted $100 bail and remanded to December 18.
