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Killer cop appears in court

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A POLICE officer who allegedly fatally stabbed his step-daughter during a misunderstanding denied the charges of rape and murder when he appeared in court yesterday.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A POLICE officer who allegedly fatally stabbed his step-daughter during a misunderstanding denied the charges of rape and murder when he appeared in court yesterday.

Moses Nigel Jalasi (27) was not asked to plead when he appeared before magistrate Barbara Mateko, who remanded him in custody to May 27.

Jalasi, who is represented by Blessing Mupwanyiwa, complained to the court that after his arrest, the police details assaulted him despite the fact that he surrendered himself.

The State, represented by Sebastian Mutizirwa, submitted a statement allegedly written by Jalasi confessing to the murder of Nyasha Olga Unganai, but Mateko asked whether he had written the statement freely and voluntarily, to which Jalasi disowned it.

He said he was forced to write the statement by the police officers, who he accused of assaulting him.

According to the statement, which was read out in court, Jalasi said he did not rape the girl, but they had an altercation over food.

They tussled until they reached the main bedroom. During the tussle, they all fell and he took a scissors and stabbed her. He allegedly then took her mobile handset, which he sold in town and used the proceeds to buy beer at a shebeen in Mbare.

The magistrate said the court would not confirm and consider his statement since he had disowned it and she advised him to seek bail at the High Court.

Allegations are that on the morning of May 10 in Eastlea, Jalasi approached Unganai, who was in the kitchen and dragged her to his bedroom, where he raped her. After that, he stabbed her several times, until she died.

It is alleged the weapon used to commit the murder was recovered by the police.

They also recovered the mobile phone which had already been sold, while he was found in possession of Unganai’s Econet SIM card.