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Court Reporter
Seven people who were arrested in 2013 for allegedly robbing Waverly Blankets of $412 798 were found not guilty and acquitted by a Harare regional magistrate. Mr Kudakwashe Brian Mungadzi (39), Mr Freddie Tsvarai (34), Mr Hoosein Karim (63), Mr Winnock Hahlani (41), Mr James Tabu (28), Mr Amos Ndhlamuti (30) and Ms Yvette Johnson Don (43) were recently cleared of any wrongdoing.
Ms Don was the first to be acquitted when her charges were withdrawn after plea because the prosecution had realised that she had been erroneously arrested when there was no evidence linking her to the commission of the offence.
A withdrawal of the matter after plea, at law, is an acquittal.
The other six were acquitted after making a successful application for discharge at the close of the prosecution’s case.
Regional magistrate Mr Noel Mupeiwa ruled that the State had failed to prove a case against the suspects and that there was no need to put them to their defence.
Allegations against the seven arose sometime in May 2013.
The State alleged that Ms Don approached Mr Karim and told him that there was going to be a movement of a large sum of money from her company to the bank.
It was the State’s case that Ms Don told Mr Karim of the lax security at Waverly Blankets during transportation of cash to the bank.
Mr Karim reportedly approached Andrew Mugarapanyama, an accountant at the bank who was still at large, with the plan to rob the bank.
Thereafter, a plan was allegedly hatched whereupon the accused persons waylaid Waverly Blankets officials and robbed them of $412 798 at gunpoint.
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