The High Court sitting in Kasungu has found Kasungu-based Josophat Kandindi not guilty of the murder of 55-year-old Hendrix Banda, and has been set free.
The murder, according to Court documents, occurred on November 04, 2020 at M’biya Village T/A Kaomba in Kasungu.
It was narrated in Court that Kandindi was employed by someone to burn bricks and had to use a well that was rented from the deceased, whose garden was very close to where the bricks were being burnt. Kandindi’s boss was charged MK6,000, which he did not settle in full.
During the time Kandindi was using the other well, another was being dug. The whole process took only three days to be completed and the MK6,000 was for the water used in the said three days. According to what was presented in Court, the deceased was paid MK5,100 and MK900 was the balance to be settled.
The deceased however informed his wife that Kandindi’s boss owed him MK160,000, not MK6,000. On several occasion, the deceased visited the farm to collect the balance but could not meet Kandindi or Kandindi’s boss.
On the day that he died, he informed his wife that he has left for the dambo to collect his dues early in the morning. The wife is said to have followed him to the farm at around 9 in the morning as he was taking long to return home.
The wife did not find the husband at the farm until she returned home but was later informed at around 12 noon that the husband has been found dead at the same dambo she visited earlier.
Josophat Kandindi and his boss were arrested by police on suspicion that they were involved in the death of Hendrix Banda. They both pleaded not guilty and sought legal aid. They were represented in Court by Senior Legal Aid Advocates Chanju Kondowe and Lusekero Kisyombe.
In Court, the State paraded seven witnesses and the accused were found with a case to answer. In defence, the accused paraded three witnesses to prove that they were not guilty of the murder charge leveled against them.
After hearing evidence from both sides, the Court intimated that it is difficult to prove a case using direct evidence and in this regard circumstantial evidence is best used to prove the guilt of the accused. However, such evidence ought to lead to one conclusion only, that the accused persons are indeed guilty. The evidence in this matter fell short of pointing only to the guilt of the accused persons, as a person could infer other possibilities from the same.
Justice Bruno Kalemba noted that of the State witnesses who testified, two indicated that they saw the deceased alive on the morning of 4 November 2020 but none testified to have seen him at the dambo that day.
The deceased’s wife went to the dambo and waited for him from 7am to 9am and she found no one at the place. When she went to see the body in the afternoon, it was close to where she was. In the Court’s view, time of death would reasonably be said to be after 9am and if it was there, she would have seen it.
On the other hand, evidence showed that the well was used for three days and it was inconvincible that such could attract a charge of MK160,000. The MK6,000 according to the Court made more sense. As the Court further saw that motive for the accused to possibly kill Banda could not be established, Kandindi and his boss were acquitted as they were found not guilty of murder.
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