Zvikomborero Parafini
A POLICE officer has been charged with criminal abuse of duty for releasing a suspect without charging him.
The suspect, Tatenda Garvin Chigumbura, had been arrested by Chancellor Nathan Garikayi in February for purchasing a vehicle that had been blacklisted by the Central Vehicle Registry.
Garikayi released Chigumbura, without impounding the vehicle.
He allegedly then provided him with a falsely obtained set of number plates belonging to the Office of the President and Cabinet in March.
When Chigumbura was later arrested, on fraud charges related to the number plates on September 28, he implicated Garikayi as the one who provided him with them.
In the second count, Garikayi and an accomplice conspired to steal registration plates from the OPC and sold them for US$2 000 to an individual who then affixed them to a smuggled Toyota Fortuner.
Garikayi appeared before Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa, who granted him US$200 bail and ordered him to report once a week at CID Police Anti-Corruption Unit.