Own Correspondent|Controversial Kwekwe businessman and “conman” Shepherd Tundiya who appears to always have his away out of the legal system has left a senior Criminal Investigating Officer in Gweru in trouble over a vehicle stolen in South Africa.
Gweru officer-in-charge Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Detective Inspector Leonard Gwandu, was last Friday arrested on allegations of criminal abuse of office after he released to Tundiya a vehicle suspected to have been stolen in South Africa.
Det Insp Gwandu appeared before Gweru magistrate Tavengwa Sangster on Saturday facing charges of criminal abuse of duty as a public officer.
He was remanded on $1 000 bail to January 17.
The State alleged that Gwandu released a Toyota Hilux Raider to Tundiya without following due process.
The court heard that Tundiya was arrested in October after being suspected of driving a stolen vehicle which did not have registration number plates.
The vehicle was taken to CID Gweru where Gwandu is the officer-in-charge.
It is alleged that Gwandu and other junior police officers checked the vehicle on the Interpol database which is installed in his office.
The database showed that the vehicle might have been stolen from Mr Thomas Blom in South Africa.
Tundiya was subsequently charged with theft of a motor vehicle, and was acquitted on December 13 last year, but no order was made as to the disposal of the vehicle.
It was heard that the police had not handed over the vehicle documents to the clerk of court to enable the court to issue an order of disposition.
On December 14, the court heard, Gwandu released the vehicle which South African Police Service officers were coming to identify.
Tundiya told the court that he bought the vehicle from a car dealer, Patrick Mutodi, in Harare.
He said he was also a victim in the event that the car was stolen.
In an another incident recently, the parliamentary privileges committee set up to investigate allegations that Norton MP, Temba Mliswa and three other legislators, solicited for a $400 000 bribe from a businessman revealed how the controversial Tundiya was the main architect of the scam.
Tundiya was accused of trying to extract a bribe of US$400 000 from Bulawayo businessman, James Goddard ostensibly on behalf of the four MPs.
The other MPs, who were implicated were Binga North MP Prince Dubeko Sibanda (MDC), Magwegwe MP Anele Ndebele (MDC), and Gokwe Kabuyuni MP Leonard Chikomba (Zanu PF), but were all cleared by Parliament but dismissed from the parliamentary committee on mines.
The MPs were then members of the mines portfolio committee, and it was alleged that they had promised to award Goddard lucrative contracts with Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) on condition he parted with $400 000.
Parliament’s privileges committee chairperson Fortune Charumbira who presented the report on investigations into the issue in the National Assembly said during the probe Tundiya was described as a ‘conman’.
Tundiya was also implicated in a forensic audit report on HCCL carried out by Reynolds Tendai Muza.
He was accused of extorting HCCL of 1003 tonnes of coal worth US$17 000, which he was supposed to deliver to the Zimbabwe Power Company but he converted it to personal use.
Tundiya also allegedly masqueraded as an official in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) who was sent by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to sort out the mess at the coal mine.
His company Avim Investments owed HCCL of US$481 225, 20 as at September 30 2018.
To escape the case, Tundiya, allegedly coerced the director of JR Goddard Contracting (Pvt) Ltd to withdraw a criminal abuse of office report he made against four members of the National Assembly.
Tundiya was yet again discharged at the close of the State case. Harare magistrate Mr Lazini Ncube said there was no evidence to prove the charges against him.
He said it was clear that Tundiya never demanded or instructed the complainant to withdraw the matter.
The State closed its case after calling Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya, to testify.