A 46-YEAR-OLD Silobela man who was this week arraigned before the courts on allegations of raping a mentally ill woman in a crop field was yesterday acquitted of the charges for lack of evidence.
By Stephen Chadenga
Regional magistrate, Morgan Nemadire said the State had failed to prove beyond doubt that indeed the woman was raped before acquitting Munyaradzi Chimende of the rape charges.
Allegations were that on January 25 last year, Chimende of Majodo village under Chief Malisa and his wife went to the complainant’s house where they took her to their homestead.
On their arrival, Chimende’s wife allegedly gave the woman some food before providing her with two bottles of anti-retroviral drugs and contraceptive pills.
Chimende then took the woman to the fields where he made her to lie on the ground before raping her once.
After the alleged abuse, the complainant returned home where she showed her mother the pills she had been given and narrated to her mother what had happened.
The woman’s mother told her brother what had happened and a police report was made leading to Chimende’s arrest.
