Chief Resident Magistrate Lameck Mwale castigated the arresting officer in the matter in which the State has sued Vinod Yaddula for theft of USD 200 000.
The Magistrate was annoyed with the arresting officer Andrew Ng’ambi for failing to bring the complainant/ state witness ( Vikram Panyam Deva Reddy) to testify in the high profile matter.
N’yambi told the court that he was unable to deliver the summon to Reddy as he does not know his whereabout.
Ng’ambi told the court that the complainant was domiciled in either India or in Dubai.
” I have been making efforts to deliver the summons to the complainant but at the moment am not aware about his whereabout. He may be either in Dubai or India and efforts to reach him on phone have proved futile as his mobile phones are unreasonable,” Ng’ambi.
When asked by the Magistrate whether he had other witnesses apart from the complainant, Ng’ambi said: “Witnesses are there your honour but they are reported out of town.”

At this point honourable Mwale was not  pleased that despite Ng’ambi arresting Yaddula, he was apparently not equal to the task of ensuring that a complainant was in court.

He said despite accusing 40-year-old  Yaddula of stealing US$200, 000, Reddy did not show up and Chief Resident Magistrate Mwale regretted that the police were relunctant to bring the complainant.
“You arrested the suspect yet you are unwilling to prosecute the matter by failing to serve notice of today’s hearing on the complainant,” Magistrate Mwale counselled an appologetic Ng’ambi, ” Justice demands that when you arrest someone and present them before  court, you are supposed to prosecute them. The accused could have been languishing in Kamwala Remand Prison yet you are not ready to prosecute the matter.”
He added: “Should you fail to present your witnesses before this honourable court, you(Ng’ambi) will stand in for them.”

The Chief Resident Magistrate asked Ng’ambi to ensure that Reddy is present when the court sits on Tuesday 11th March 2020.