A 34-year-old man who was recently pardoned from prison has been burned to death by a mob for allegedly stealing a motorcycle.
Police in the district have identified the man as Evance Mthuluwe aged 34.
According to a police report, Mthuluwe was a well-known criminal and was recently pardoned from prison due to Covid-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, Mthuluwe and his friend Francis Manjiri aged 23 broke into a house and stole a Lifo motorcycle.
Mthuluwe was seen on Friday at Nkando trading center with the same motorcycle which he was offering for sale.
On Saturday, the owner and a group of people started looking for the suspected thief in order to catch him and recover the stolen motorcycle
At about 6PM, Mthuluwe and his friend Francis Manjiri were apprehended at Magombo Village, Traditional Authority Nkanda in Mulanje where they were drinking beer.
The angry people assaulted Mthuluwe and burned him to death. The second suspect was rescued by community forum personnel who took him to Chambe police unit.
Police were informed and they rushed to the scene of crime together with clinical officer from Mulanje District hospital who conducted postmortem examination. Results showed that death was due to severe head injuries because of the assault.
Meanwhile the second suspect has admitted to have stolen the motorcycle and sold it in Phalombe. Investigations are still underway to recover the motorcycle.
