Suspect in court over P200,000 Rollers robbery
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday April 21, 2017 17:12
The accused, Molefe Mogatusi, of Oodi village is among six other suspects who are linked with the armed robbery that took place last Saturday in front of CA Sales.
Six other suspects are still at large. They are accused of robbing Rollers official, Minkie Molatlhegi of cash amounting to P200,000, a Samsung cellphone as well as tickets that were used during the game between Rollers and their archrivals, Mochudi Centre Chiefs.
Prosecutor, assistant Superintendent Mosireletsi Phologo pleaded with the court to remand the accused in custody since the investigations are still at an initial stage. He said the case involves large amounts of money and that since there is a lead in the matter, they will be able to gather concrete evidence in the matter if given some time.
The investigating officer, Elias Segokgo said the case was reported at Old Naledi Police Station on the same night of the robbery.
He said upon receiving some information, they arrested the suspect on Tuesday night and have since recovered P420 and a wrench suspected to have been used in the robbery from the suspect’s home.
He said the suspect has since confirmed the wrench belongs to him. He asked the court to give them 14 days to continue with the investigations since six other suspects are still at large.
He said they have not yet seen the witnesses of which some are relatives of the accused.
“The stolen items have not yet been recovered, so we are pleading wit the court to give us time to investigate the matter further,” detective Segokgo told the court. He said they have a lead, which could see them recover stolen items as well as arrest the other suspects.
However, the suspect Mogatusi said he was tortured during interrogation and ended up admitting to things that were not true.
He said although he had confirmed to the investigators that the wrench belonged to him, the item actually does not belong to him.
Magistrate, Ncube asked the investigating officer to give reasons why they link the P420 to the robbery.
She said the investigating officer was not giving enough reasons as to why they link Mogatusi to the robbery. She also said it is not unusual for someone to be found in possession of P420.
Ncube was also worried that previously, there were some circumstances where suspects were kept in custody without any concrete evidence linking them to crimes only for the prosecuting officers to withdraw charges after arresting the wrong persons.
However, Segokgo said in 14 days they will be able to present concrete evidence on the case.
He said releasing the suspect might jeopardise their case since the suspect might interfere with investigations. The suspect will appear again for mention on May 4, 2017.