FRANCISTOWN: A man from Ratholo village is on trial for the alleged murder of his former girlfriend. The state alleges that Tiroyaone Segwati murdered Duduetsang Moloko on August 3, 2019 in Tumasera.
Segwati allegedly committed the offence under the influence of alcohol after Moloko ended their love relationship. When Segwati appeared before Justice Taboka Mopipi on Wednesday, Constable Kabelo Makgatho told the court that they arrested Segwati at his grandmother’s yard where he had escaped to after he allegedly committed the offence.
When being cross examined by the accused’s attorney Kerobilwe Ditlhobolo, Makgatho said that he did not know if Segwati’s DNA was not found on the track top that he (Makgatho) confiscated from Segwati after he arrested him.
Makgatho also said that the accused was very cooperative with the police when they went to arrest him at his grandmother’s place. When Ditlhobolo said that he put it to Makgatho that Segwati never said that he murdered Moloko but beat her upon being confronted by the police in relation to Moloko’s murder, Makgatho differed with that version.
Makgatho said that contrary to that claim, Segwati told the police that he murdered Moloko when the police questioned him. The case was postponed to June 9 to allow Dr Varaprasad Patnaik, the forensic pathologist who examined Moloko, to come and give testimony. Dr Patnaik has since retired and returned to his home country, India. Attorney Elijah Setshego from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) prosecuted.
