Cattle rustlers hide cow in a pit

A 50-YEAR-OLD Ruwa man and his accomplice have been arrested for stealing a cow and hiding it in a pit.

Tedious Chirume (38) of Epworth and Howard Murungweni (50) appeared in court on Friday charged with stocktheft.

The duo was remanded in custody to August 3 and advised to apply for bail at the High Court.

The complainant in the matter is Lovelier Zhou.

The State alleges that on July 21, 2021, at around 10am at Mangwana Farm, the accused persons were found by one Luke Chiruka with a brown cow, which was in a pit.

Chiruka asked the pair about the cow and they then produced a ZRP Form 392, livestock clearance certificate serial number 3315315 which was done on June 26.

The clearance form was done by ZRP Ruwa and it showed that two cows had been cleared, but it had different descriptions with the cow in the pit.

The accused persons allegedly failed to account for the cow and Chiruka phoned ZRP Epworth.

Police officers attended the scene, leading to their arrest.

The complainant was then advised and she allegedly identified her brown cow with short horns at ZRP Epworth.

The value of the stolen cow is US$650.