Paza Buster car sale alleged robbers found not guilty in court

Harare – A Harare magistrate,Clever Tsikwa on Wednesday handed a not guilty sentence to two alleged armed robbers, Bhekimpilo Ncube and Mehluli Ncube who were facing charges of breaking into Paza Buster Car Sales in the capital in December 2023.

The pair were cleared of robbery charges at the close of the State’s case in Harare.

The ruling came after the duo’s lawyer, Kholwani Ngwenya made a successful application for discharge at the close of the State’s case.

Bhekimpilo, Mehluli and Andrew Chenjerai were jointly charged last year on armed robbery charges.

Tsikwa however postponed the ruling on Chenjerai’s application for discharge to next week citing that he needed more time to look into submissions made by Defence and the State.

Chenjerai is being represented by Romeo Chatereza of Dube, Manikai and Hwacha.

On Tuesday, police assistant Inspector Isiah Chikanda was grilled by the defence lawyers as he failed to link the three accused people to the robbery.

Chikanda did not provide any exhibits in court or investigate the alibis of the three accused.

The detective was accused of wrongfully arresting the trio and failure to do basic police investigations.

It was established in court that Bhekimpilo Ncube and Mehluli Ncube did not know Chenjerai even when the State said they allegedly acted with common purpose.

The discharge of Bhekimpilo Ncube and Mehluli Ncube proves that they were facing trumped up charges and the State represented by Chikanda had wrongfully charged the pair in a case that has spanned over a year.