BY ISAAC OTWII
Police in Kwania District has launched an investigation after a suspected thief under their custody was found dead.
Police say Mr Tonny Onguta, 41, the LC1 chairperson of Abongodani village in Abongomola Sub-county in Kwania District together with his defence secretary, Ogwal Leone were arrested on Thursday morning.
It is alleged that a suspected cattle thief was found dead inside Mr Oguta’s house after he was locked inside the house for custody.
The North Kyoga Regional Police spokesperson, Patrick Jimmy Okema confirmed the incident. He identified the deceased as Calvin Odongo.
Mr Okema said the two suspects on Wednesday evening arrested the deceased and locked him in a house as they went to report to police at the Abongomola police post.
“At around 8 pm yesterday, the deceased was arrested by the suspects after he was allegedly found in possession of suspected stolen cattle. They then locked the suspect in LCI’s house as they rushed to the police station to report the matter and seek assistance,” he said on Thursday.
Mr Okema said the two, however, found when the suspect had committed suicide.
“The deceased was found hanging in the house. We have visited the scene and some exhibits were recovered. The two, LCI and his Secretary of defence are being detained in custody to help with the investigation since they arrested and kept the deceased in a none gazetted detention place,” says Mr Okema.
By press time, Mr Okema said the body of the deceased had been taken to Lira regional referral hospital for postmortem examination.
“We would like to discourage people from arresting and detaining suspects in places that are not gazetted for detention, instead, we encourage people to apprehend and take suspects straight to police for investigation and possible prosecution,” he said.
