Police in Lilongwe have arrested a 39-year-old Indian national, Yusuf Badat, for unlawfully possessing 600 bags of Agricultural Input Programme (AIP) urea fertiliser.
Lilongwe Police Spokesperson Hastings Chigalu confirmed of the arrest in an interview with the press on Wednesday.
Chigalu said police acted on a tip-off and Lilongwe Police detectives intervened at the Cold Storage offices in Chinsapo 1 where they found a 30-tonner truck, bearing registration number NS 6944/NS 5161, loading the labelled property marked “Malawi Government, Not for Sale.”
“After police confronted the driver of the truck who was about to leave the scene with the fertiliser for Chimwemwe Farm in Mchinji, he revealed the identity of the suspect (Badat) to be the owner of the property. Then police swiftly moved in to arrest the suspect and seize the fertiliser,” said Chigalu.
Meanwhile, the suspect is in police custody and the police says they have intensified investigations to establish where and how he obtained the fertilizer.
