The controversy over the shooting of Costa Kalafatis by the police veered off into a new row as government cooked up a false story in an apparent bid to malign Kalafatis. Botswana Police Service last week posted a statement on their website claiming that the police have been trying to trace Costa Kalafatis ever since he was apparently discharged from the hospital but all in vain.
The statement further alleges that Kalafatis was not interviewed by the detectives to establish circumstances surrounding the Phase 2 case, the shooting of the Isuzu vehicle and the alleged shooting of Costa Kalafatis.
It has since emerged that the statement posted on the police website was a lie. Gaborone West, Acting Station Commander Totanang Mohwase confirmed to the Sunday Standard that indeed Kalafatis handed himself on Tuesday and gave a statement in relation to an incident where he was suspected of snatching a bag from a woman in G West last year which led to the police shooting him during a chase. Mohwase said that Kalafatis was then released after giving a statement. Kalafatis lawyer expressed shock that the police had written a public statement on Wednesday that is not true. Dick Bayford said Botswana Police spokesperson’s statement which was shared on their website was full of lies. Bayford said that he was shocked to learn that the police made such damming public statement while Kalafatis had long given the police a statement.
In their website which was even shared on government Facebook page the police allege that they have been trying to trace Costa Kalafatis ever since he was apparently discharged from the hospital but all in vain. They stated that he had not yet been interviewed by the detectives to establish circumstances surrounding the Phase 2 case, the shooting of the Isuzu vehicle and the alleged shooting. Botswana Police Service stated that they were investigating a criminal case reported to them on December 14 about midnight through Police emergency telephone (999) in which a Botswana citizen female’s bag was snatched near Phase 2 bars in Gaborone. The report stated that the bag was snatched by a man who later drove away in a white Isuzu vehicle.
The police claim that it was during the chase of the vehicle and the police trying to stop the driver of the Isuzu vehicle in order to further investigate and effect an arrest that the Police shot towards the wheels of the vehicle to stop it, but the vehicle managed to run away.
They say the same vehicle was later found abandoned at the flats near Naledi Motors in Gaborone. A report was later made at Central Police Station that Costa Kalafatis was shot by the police driving the vehicle in question.
The police stated that they are however hopeful that Kalafatis would hand himself to the police in order to make headway in the investigations.
