Two suspects, a fire brigade officer and a traffic policeman, accused of stealing $200 from an accident scene, where His Presence Ministries International leader Charles Chiriseri died, denied the theft charges they are facing when they appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Sithembiso Ncube on Monday.
BY SILAS NKALA
Both Mthandazo Ricky Dube (34) and the Mbembesi police traffic officer Tawanda Mawere (31) were remanded out of custody to May 22 for continuation of trial.
State allegations are that on September 15 last year, the complainant, Petunia Chiriseri, and her late husband were involved in a road accident, while driving from Harare to Bulawayo in their Toyota Vigo double cab.
Gordon Dube and Whole Dube were the first to arrive at the accident scene before Mthandazo and Mawere arrived to rescue the victims.
Officials from the fire brigade opened the door of the car and Mthandazo allegedly retrieved the body of Chiriseri, searched it and removed a wallet from his trouser pockets.
He allegedly opened the wallet and recovered some business cards, a driver’s licence and $505,95.
Gordon then asked Mthandazo to count the money in his presence and hand over the wallet and cash to Mawere.
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It is alleged that a record of the money was made in Famona Fire Brigade’s vehicle log book.
After that, Gordon drove away after Chiriseri’s relatives, including Collen Nyathi, had arrived at the scene.
The following day, Nyathi drove to Mbembesi Police Station to collect Chiriseri’s property and was given $305,95 after Mthandazo and Mawere allegedly converted some of the money to their own use.
The church leaders then reported the matter to the police, leading to the suspects’ arrest.
In his defence, Mthandazo said he gave the wallet in question to Mawere and was not involved in the counting of the money at the accident scene.
