CID Director Commissioner Arrested
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) director Commissioner Chrispen Charumbira was arrested on Wednesday by the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU) and detained at Rhodesville Police Station in Harare and is expected to appear in court on Friday.
Comm Charumbira was arrested on allegations of accepting protection money from drug and gold dealers to stop criminal investigations.
Some of Charumbira’s junior officers alleged that he had been interfering with their duties by protecting criminals after accepting US dollars in protection money.
Some junior officers told SACU that they been transferred to stations outside Harare for defying Comm Charumbira’s orders to release arrested suspects.
In one incident which reportedly occurred while Charumbira was CID co-ordinator for Harare, three detectives from CID Drugs and Narcotics arrested two Mufakose drug dealers who were found in possession of illicit drugs.
The detectives recovered 443g of dagga packed in sachets and bottles of BronCleer cough syrup from the dealers who are brothers, Norman and Charles Chabata.
Charumbira allegedly called the detectives and ordered them to release the two drug dealers but their immediate boss refused.
The Chabata brothers later appeared before the Harare Magistrates Court and were fined US$100 each. In retaliation, Charumbira ordered the transfer of the three detectives to CID Chiredzi, CID Lupane and CID Mount Darwin.
After a complaint to CID Headquarters, they were transferred back to CID Harare but understood they might still be sent to stations outside the city.
