The Station Commander of Gaborone Central Police, Calvin Mookodi, was shocked when he was ordered to pave way for investigations that were being carried out against him following the mysterious disappearance of court exhibits.
Sunday Standard investigations have revealed that, last month, an inspection was conducted at CPS which revealed that some money that was for court exhibits was missing from the Station Commander’s safe.
The inspection revealed that receipt book pages where the money had been recorded were professionally removed so that one could hardly tell that a page was missing.
The investigation further revealed that the money was part of a court exhibit for an armed robbery case that occurred sometime last year at Extension 9. The suspect was later arrested at Palapye and is expected to appear in court soon.
Interviewed by Sunday Standard, Senior Superintendent, Simon Samuel Moepeng, last week confirmed that the Station Commander of CPS was suspended from duty while investigations are being carried out.
“I am not in a better position to say exactly what happened but some money, which was under his custody, disappeared from his office as the station commander but I cannot say how much money was involved,” he said.
Moepeng added, “I am not sure when the investigation will be complete because sometimes investigations take time but I hope the investigating team will speed up their findings.”
He said as senior officer, he often makes surprise visits to various police stations within his policing area to inspect cash books in order to curb incidents where government money disappears.
However, the suspended station commander was also implicated in another police investigation when some Chinese were illegally offered free accommodation by the CPS management.
It turned out that even though the Botswana Police Service is hit by a shortage of accommodation countrywide, some Chinese nationals were caught squatting in a police house for almost two months.
Information passed to Sunday Standard suggests that management at the Gaborone Central Police Station is under investigations after the station accommodated Chinese nationals in a police house Plot 768 in Extension 2, without the knowledge of the police management service.
The Chinese occupants of the house are said to have been paying for neither electricity nor water, happily letting the police foot the bill.
When contacted for comment, Assistant Police Commissioner, Pilane Sesigi, told Sunday Standard that he could not comment since the matter was still under investigation.
