Mutodi late for court, prosecutor applies for warrant of arrest

FLAMBOYANT Rhumba musician Energy Mutodi, who is facing allegations of defrauding desperate home seekers of close to US$2 million, yesterday was late at court prompting the prosecutor to apply for a warrant of arrest.

The application was granted but was cancelled a few minutes later after Mutodi showed up.

Through his lawyer Mr Farayi Ndoro, Mutodi immediately applied for release of his passport to allow him to travel to South Africa on a business trip, which prosecutor Mr Tungamirai Chakurira strenuously opposed.

Mr Chikurira argued that Mutodi was a flight risk considering that the application came after cancellation of a warrant of arrest.

Magistrate Ms Anita Tshuma accepted the prosecution submissions and threw out the application saying he was likely to abscond and prejudice the administration of justice.

Ms Tshuma also cited other fraud cases Mutodi is facing, which she said was likely to induce him to evade justice once he is given his passport back.

Mutodi is on a US$2 000 bail and part of his bail conditions are that he surrenders his passport, reports to Borrowdale Police Station once every week and not to interfere with witnesses and investigations.

Allegations against Mutodi arose after he hatched a plan to defraud cash from unsuspecting civil servants and formed National Housing Development Trust situated at the Zimpost building in Mutare.

It is the State's case that Mutodi made a misrepresentation to the civil servants to make some monthly payments into NHDT and as a result Mutodi purported to them that the money they paid was for purchase of land in Mutare's Gimboki South housing project which he was pegging, servicing and promised to allocate some residential stands to each of them.

It is alleged that a total of 1 562 complainants joined Mutodi's NHDT and he started receiving varying amounts of cash deducted from the complainants' salaries through a Salary Service Bureau stop order facility.