Martin Muleya
A Chipinge regional court prosecutor was dragged to court together with a legal practitioner on allegations of defeating the course of justice.
Timothy Katsande (34) and Benjamin Basikiti (35) who is employed at Mutendi, Mudisi and Shumba Legal Practitioners appeared before Mutare provincial magistrate Anne Ndiraya and were granted $100 bail with conditions attached.
It was the State’s case that on 28th of December 2024 Godfrey Mutimudye’s daughter who is in primary school was raped by her uncle Takunda Musharu (30) at home in Chipinge.
On 31st of December 2024 Musharu appeared at Chipinge Magistrate court represented by Basikiti and was remanded to the 10th of January 2025 while principal public prosecutor Thembalami Dhliwayo appeared for the State.
A complete docket of rape as defined in Section 65 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act was referred to the National Prosecuting Authority for set down under CRB CHPR 125/24 and the matter was supposed to commence trial on the 15th of January 2025.
“The docket which was referred to the National Prosecuting Authority contained the victim’s statements narrating how she was forced to have sexual intercourse by Musharu. The State outline clearly indicated that the victim and Musharu were related as niece and uncle respectively, and further indicated that Musharu had dragged his niece into his aunt’s room where he lowered his short to knee level, went on top of her and forcibly had sexual intercourse with her once. The outline also mentioned that the victim had raised alarm but to no avail as she had voice projection problem.
“The matter was then allocated to Katsande who was assigned to Chipinge Regional Court for prosecution. He went on to connive with Basikiti to produce a statement of agreed facts which had completely different facts from the evidence in the docket.
“The accused persons produced a statement of agreed facts which indicated that the victim and Musharu were not related but had consensual sex. With the statement of agreed facts in place, Musharu then went on to plead guilty for contravening Section 70 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 and was sentenced to 36 months imprisonment of which 12 months were suspended for five years. He was to serve 24 months effectively”.
The two will be back in the dock on 25th April 2025.
