Police at Liwonde in Machinga have arrested a village headman Nsapato and five other men for being found with human bones.
Machinga police station public relations officer, Constable Davie Sulumba has identified the village headman as 50-year-old Dyton Makwesela and others as Lamilo Mambo 35, King Wiskies Tuwaliki Galagate 38, Witman Kadam’manja 29 and Mussa Sanuwedi Kamba 30.
Sulumba said the suspects were arrested following a tip that the police got on 3rd January, that there were some men offering for sale human bones.
“Following the information, Police intensified its investigations and managed to arrest the first two suspects, Makwesela and Mambo on 7th January, 2019 at Nkasaulo Village along Bakili Muluzi highway after they were found with16 human bones.
“The suspects were taken to Liwonde Police and upon interview, they revealed that they were not alone in the deal and this led to the arrest of the other three suspects on 8th January 2019; but one is still at large,”explained Sulumba.
The suspects also confessed to have hollowed out the bones from two different graves, one at Nantunga village in the area of Paramount Chief Kawinga and the other one at Chilala village.
A visit to the grave by the police revealed that the suspects exhumed the body of Abiti Katungwe Chitaile who was a leprosy patient and was laid to rest in 1970 while at the second scene, the suspect failed to locate the grave from which the bones were exhumed from.
All the suspects have since been charged with offences of possessing human tissues, Trespassing burial Place, Unlawful exhumation of human corps and Causing extraction of Human Tissues contrary to Sections 224 (A), 131 (A), 131 (B) and 131 (C) of the Penal Code as amended in 2016 respectively.
The suspects have since been remanded to Domasi Prison for the case is still under investigation.
Makwesela comes from Jafali village, Mambo from Kamkwamba village, Wiskies Tuwaliki from Chipamba village, Kadam’manja from Kamala village while Sanuwedi comes from Chikaonda Village all from the area of Paramount Chief Kawinga in Machinga district.
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