THE circumstances of the death of Lazarus Kandara, the Chief Executive Officer of Avid Investment Corporation who is claimed to have committed suicide within hours after the Police arrested him on a charge of fraud close to three weeks ago, remain veiled in uncertainty, with the Police reporting yesterday that they are not yet in a position to release the results of their investigation into the event.
The Police investigation, which is primarily aimed at finding out how Kandara had managed to get hold of a firearm on the evening that he shot himself, is still continuing, a Police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, said on enquiry yesterday. He said the Police would be making an announcement on the outcome of the investigation once the findings had become available.The results of forensic tests are one of the outstanding issues in the investigation, Amulungu said.It is understood that these are gunpowder-residue tests on Kandara’s hands that would show whether he had fired a gun at the time of his death.The hands of Police officers who were escorting Kandara into the Windhoek Police Station at the time of the shooting on the evening of August 24 were also supposed to have been tested for gunpowder residue.The tests have to be done by the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia.Amulungu said except for the investigation to establish how Kandara got hold of a firearm, his death would also be the subject of a formal inquest, where a court would rule on the cause of death.He could not say when the probes would be wrapped up.Two autopsies have been done on Kandara’s remains – one by a State pathologist and the other by Cape Town-based forensic pathologist Dr Linda Liebenberg, who had been asked by Kandara’s family to do a second post-mortem examination.The findings of neither of the autopsies have been released yet, but sources have indicated that both found that Kandara had been killed by a gunshot fired in very close proximity to his chest.Such a scenario would not contradict the Police’s claims that Kandara had killed himself by shooting himself in the heart.The Police’s initial official reaction to Kandara’s death was to issue a detailed press statement on his last movements during the four and a half hours that he had been in Police custody after his arrest.In that statement, issued the day after Kandara’s death and signed by the Police’s Inspector General, Lieutenant General Sebastian Ndeitunga, it was claimed that available information at that stage indicated that Kandara had received the 9 mm Beretta pistol, with which he was claimed to have been shot, from his wife.That would have been when Police officers accompanied him to his home in Windhoek to collect medication and bedding before he was to be locked up in the cells at the Windhoek Police Station.That statement was, however, retracted three days later, and replaced with a brief press release stating that the manner in which Kandara had managed to get hold of a firearm was being investigated, and that his death was still regarded as a suicide.Kandara died after he had given two days of testimony in the High Court in Windhoek on the role that he and his firm, Avid Investment Corporation, had played in an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission was convinced to place with Avid late in January this year.Avid was unable to repay the money by its due date in late May, leading to the company’s provisional liquidation and a Companies Act inquiry conducted in the High Court in an attempt to establish what had happened to the SSC’s money.He said the Police would be making an announcement on the outcome of the investigation once the findings had become available.The results of forensic tests are one of the outstanding issues in the investigation, Amulungu said.It is understood that these are gunpowder-residue tests on Kandara’s hands that would show whether he had fired a gun at the time of his death.The hands of Police officers who were escorting Kandara into the Windhoek Police Station at the time of the shooting on the evening of August 24 were also supposed to have been tested for gunpowder residue.The tests have to be done by the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia.Amulungu said except for the investigation to establish how Kandara got hold of a firearm, his death would also be the subject of a formal inquest, where a court would rule on the cause of death.He could not say when the probes would be wrapped up.Two autopsies have been done on Kandara’s remains – one by a State pathologist and the other by Cape Town-based forensic pathologist Dr Linda Liebenberg, who had been asked by Kandara’s family to do a second post-mortem examination.The findings of neither of the autopsies have been released yet, but sources have indicated that both found that Kandara had been killed by a gunshot fired in very close proximity to his chest.Such a scenario would not contradict the Police’s claims that Kandara had killed himself by shooting himself in the heart.The Police’s initial official reaction to Kandara’s death was to issue a detailed press statement on his last movements during the four and a half hours that he had been in Police custody after his arrest.In that statement, issued the day after Kandara’s death and signed by the Police’s Inspector General, Lieutenant General Sebastian Ndeitunga, it was claimed that available information at that stage indicated that Kandara had received the 9 mm Beretta pistol, with which he was claimed to have been shot, from his wife.That would have been when Police officers accompanied him to his home in Windhoek to collect medication and bedding before he was to be locked up in the cells at the Windhoek Police Station.That statement was, however, retracted three days later, and replaced with a brief press release stating that the manner in which Kandara had managed to get hold of a firearm was being investigated, and that his death was still regarded as a suicide.Kandara died after he had given two days of testimony in the High Court in Windhoek on the role that he and his firm, Avid Investment Corporation, had played in an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission was convinced to place with Avid late in January this year.Avid was unable to repay the money by its due date in late May, leading to the company’s provisional liquidation and a Companies Act inquiry conducted in the High Court in an attempt to establish what had happened to the SSC’s money.
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