Suspect dies in Malawi Police cell
Mystery surrounds death of a suspect at Chitimba Police Unit in Rumphi. While police claim he committed suicide, his relations allege murder.
Gift Nkhonjera from Traditional Authority ( T/A) Mwalweni died on Tuesday night, just hours after he was arrested for alleged malicious damage.
Deputy Police Commissioner for the North Grinton Mitayi said on Thursday that an officer on duty reported NKhonjera hanged himself with a belt.
“He was brought to police by a complainant, Michael Ndovi, whose door was allegedly broken by Nkhonjera, who was reportedly drunk and police could not interview him.
“We charged him [Nkhonjera] with malicious damage, but later in the night, he was reported to have hanged himself,” said Mitayi.
He alleged that Nkhonjera was the only suspect in the cell and no one saw him commit suicide.
Mitayi said while his relations are speculating many things, postmortem results showed he died of suffocation.
However, he said police are investigating the matter because there are other reports that some people saw Ndovi assaulting Nkhonjera. He added Ndovi was in police custody to protect him from the deceased family as they turned violent.
One of Nkhonjera’s relations, Ireen Liponje, said the family is suspicious of his death, arguing the police always seize suspects’ belt when arresting them.
She alleged that the trousers Nkhonjera was wearing at the time of his death was not his and that claimed Ndovi assaulted him before surrendering him to police. She said the family is also weighing the possibility he might have died before his arrest.
“His brother, Yotamu ,visited him at police, but he was [barred from seeing] him because it was too late. He was surprised to learn Gift died the following morning,” said Liponje.
