Pakistani sexually assualts Malawian girl: Court quizzes police over bail
Blantyre Magistrates Court has taken to task the Blantyre Police officer for releasing on bail a Pakistan national, Irafan Ali on defilement charges before being formally charged by the court of law.
Irafan Ali 28 years old and works for Shayyan Super Market in Blantyre city was arrested on Thursday by Blantyre Police before being freed on bail in circumstance that raised questions on the police integrity.
He is accused of defiling a less than 15 years girl.
Generally based on current legal practice, any person accused of sensitive cases such as defilement and murder are not allowed to be given police bail except on health grounds or any other serious circumstances deemed appropriate and justified by the authorities.
However, Ali was granted bail just hours of his arrest, the development that raised questions, forcing Senior Residence Magistrate, Innocent Nebi to demand explanation as on what grounds the law enforcers used to grant him bail.
It was drama as the officers were left numb-dead as they tried in vain to justify the release of Ali but could not provide one clear reason for his release, compelling Nebi to revoke the bail before granting him another one.
Nebi later granted Ali bail after paying K50, 000 as a bond after taking plea of not guilty.
And efforts by Nyasa Times to obtain case details from police proved tough one than expected as officers refused to provide the information.
The police charge sheet filed in court does not contain any detailed information about the case as part from the details Nyasa Times has managed to obtain and use in this story.
Blantyre Police spokesperson, Lameck Thembachako argued the case was in court and could not divulge information, surprisingly he has been giving out information to the media including Nyasa Times on several occasion despite the involved cases were still in court of law.
Corruption suspicions
As Nyasa Times was labouring in its course to obtain full details of the case, it established that the officers at Blantyre Police pocketed K150, 000 to grant Irafan Ali police bail.
Our investigations also revealed that Ali through some of his aides has been in contacts with the girl’s parents in order to withdraw the case.
Defilement cases are sensitive and once found guilty by the court of law, the accused is bound to be jailed not less than 14 years.
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