BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

A HARARE transport operator, Ephraim Mujawo, has approached the High Court seeking release of his seven 30-tonne trucks which were impounded by police last month after being suspected to have been stolen.

Mujawo claimed that the State withdrew the case on January 21 for lack of evidence, but police have refused to release the vehicles.

In his urgent chamber application to the High Court, Mujawo cited one Detective Sergeant Muuya and Mukura, officer-in-charge Vehicle Theft Squad Nzirawa, Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga and Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe.

Mujawo, through his lawyer David Ngwerume, said the police had no legal basis to continue holding onto his trucks after failing to prove that they were stolen property.

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He added that the continued seizure of the trucks was financially bleeding his company.

He claims that after failing to prove the alleged theft, police on January 14 advised that they would continue holding onto the vehicles.

The matter was initially handled by Harare magistrate Barbara Mateko under case number CRB03/20 before the State withdrew the charges before plea, but police refused to release the trucks, according to Mujawo’s lawyer.

The police are yet to respond to the application.