Police Commissioner General Godwin Matanga is being sued alongside his two officers by a Chipinge man whose US$24 000 was seized as an exhibit in a fraud case and was never recovered.
The complainant, Desire Tevera, was later turned into a witness in the case, having been initially arrested as a suspect.
However, efforts to get back his money over the past 15 months have been futile prompting him to mount the case at the High Court.
The matter is yet to be heard.
Matanga was cited as a first respondent while Detective Sergeant Madhibha and an officer commanding Chipinge CID were, cited as second and third respondents.
Tevera is seeking release of his US$23 940 and is complaining that the police are taking too long to give him back the money.
Court papers show Tevera was arrested last year in Chipinge.
The state however failed to prosecute him as allowed by the law.
His argument is that he should have been tried in a period not exceeding 21 days from his arrest.
He was later told that he was no longer a suspect in the case but could not be given back his bag containing the money and his mobile phone which was being kept by the police as exhibits.
“On the 5th of April 2020 police officers in Chipinge from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) seized and took possession of my money being US$23 940. The police alleged verbally to me that my money was in connection with a fraud case,” he said.
Tevera also told the High court in his application that he sought from the police officers’ clearer details of the alleged fraud but could not get anything meaningful.
“I had anticipated that I was going to be summoned to court or I was going to be advised of trial date. I made several attempts to get clearer details and it came as a surprise when police officers advised me that I was now required to appear as a witness in a case of fraud. This meant that I had been turned to a witness from being an accused person. That discovery made me realise that the allegations of fraud remain a bald allegation,” the court papers read.
“Now in this case the 21 working days have lapsed as it is over 15 months from the time my property was seized,” he complained.
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