FOUR people, including a journalist, Hamisi Tembo, yesterday appeared before a Dar es Salaam court charged with impersonation, posing as tax collection officials sent by offices of the President and Prime Minister to track tax evaders, hence obtaining 200m/- from different companies.
Tembo, who is said to have worked with
Radio Imani, was charged at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in
Dar es Salaam alongside two businesspersons, Nocolaus Obado and Wakati
Mungi, with counts of conspiracy, forgery, obtaining money by false
pretences and impersonating a public officer.
The court had to move to Muhimbili
National Hospital (MNH) where the prosecution read over and explained
the charges against a student, Issa Mohamed Awadh, also known as Charles
Mwamunyange and Trah Rio Mwenge, who is admitted to the hospital.
According to the case details, the
companies allegedly linked to the commission of the crimes include
Bakhresa and Company Limited, IPP Media, Oil Com, Gapco Limited, Lake
Oil Company Tanzania Limited, Puma Company Limited and Usangu Logistics
Company Limited.
The four accused persons denied the
charges before Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba. The
magistrate ordered the accused persons to remain in custody pending
completion of investigations into the matter, after considering an
application by the prosecution.
He adjourned the case to April 11, for mention, but directed the prosecution to speed up the investigation process.
The prosecution had, earlier requested
the court to temporarily halt bail to the accused persons because there
was likelihood for them to interfere with the process once bailed out.
Principal State Attorney Faraja Nchimbi
and Senior State Attorney Pamela Shinyambala, for the prosecution, told
the court that the accused persons conspired to commit the offences on
diverse dates between March 10 and 17, this year, at an unknown place in
Ilala District.
The prosecution alleged that within the
period in the district, the accused persons presented themselves as
Kassim Majaliwa, the Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania,
which they knew to be untrue.
It was alleged further that between
March 10 and 17, this year, in Dar es Salaam, jointly and together, all
the accused persons forged undated letters, purporting to be genuine
from the President’s Office.
Such letters, according to the
prosecution, were directing directors of the said companies to deposit
25m/- each in an account at ABC Bank in the name of TRA HR Mwenge, as
consideration for tax reduction to the companies, a fact which the
accused persons knew to be false.
On March 17, this year, at the offices
of Usangu Logistic Company Limited within Ilala District, Awadh
allegedly uttered to receptionist a letter, purportedly been issued by
the President’s Office, directing the boss of the company to deposit the
said 25m/- to the bank account for similar purposes.
The prosecution further charged Awadh
and Tembo with a count of obtaining money by false pretences at TSN
Foundation within Ilala District on March 10, this year. The two are
alleged to have obtained 1,000 US dollars from one Farough Ahmed, alias
Bagozah.
It is alleged that the accused persons
pretended that the said amount was for the purpose of financing a
scholarship obtained by Awadh in the United States of Americ
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