The Senior Resident Magistrate Court in Dedza has discharged 79-year-old grand father from a defilement offence he was accused of.
Yotamu Kaliyopa was arrested by Kabwazi Police in March on suspicion that he impregnated his teenage granddaughter who was under his custody.
𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝐾𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑦𝑜𝑝𝑎 (𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡) 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑘𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖 𝐾𝑎𝑚𝑏𝑢𝑤𝑎 (𝑆𝐿𝐴𝐴), 𝑁𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑝ℎ𝑜 𝑀𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑒ℎ𝑢𝑤𝑒 (𝐴𝐿𝐴𝑂) 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐸𝑑𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝐾𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑧𝑎 (𝐿𝐴𝑂). Credit. Legal Aid Bureau Malawi.
It was reported that the mother of the victim is the one who discovered that the girl was pregnant and when asked, the teenager mentioned three men to have impregnated her.
Later on, the girl started mentioning her grandfather to have been sleeping with her, resulting in the pregnancy. Kaliyopa however denied the accusation.
Upon his arrest, Kaliyopa sought legal aid assistance and he was represented in Court by Senior Legal Aid Advocate Chikondi Kambuwa with paperwork assistance from Legal Aid Officer Edith Kaliza and Assistant Legal Aid Officer Nosipho Mwenehuwe.
In the course of the matter, the State after negotiating with Legal Aid Bureau applied for a withdrawal as guided by Section 81 (a) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Code having noted that insufficient evidence was gathered against the accused.
Senior Resident Magistrate James Mankhwazi granted the discharge of the 79-year-old grandfather.
In his ruling, he indicated that indeed at the moment, there was a lack of reasonable evidence against Yotamu Kaliyopa in the matter.
