A 35 year old man committed suicide by hanging himself with a belt after being caught red-handed stealing school property at Chimteka Community Day Secondary School in Mchinji District.

Mchinji Police Public Relations Officer, Kaitano Lubrino, told Malawi News Agency (Mana) that the deceased, Chikumbutso Eliya who was locked inside a classroom pending to be brought before the police, committed suicide during the night between 8th and 9th February, 2018.

Lubrino said cousin to Eliya, Mcloud Nthala told Mchinji Police Station that his cousin who was working as a bricklayer for the ongoing construction of school blocks at the Community Day Secondary School was fired in December last year.

He further disclosed that on February 8, 2018, Eliya was caught red-handed by the school’s watchmen while stealing a toilet door. This prompted the watchmen to lock him in one of the classrooms, pending to be taken to police next morning for further investigations.

The man was later in the morning found hanging dead to one of the classroom’s windows tied to it by his belt, according to Lubrino.

Postmortem conducted at Mchinji District Hospital revealed that the death occurred due to suffocation secondary to strangulation.

Eliya hailed from Mchokwe Village, Traditional Authority Chitukula in Lilongwe.