A 23-year-old man has committed suicide in Balaka after withdrawing cash from his friends phone.
The deceased has been identified as Desire Nsapato from Chilembwe Village in Traditional Authority Nchiramwera in Thyolo District.
The incident happened between at Chauluka Village in Traditional Authority Nsamala in Balaka District.
It has been established that Nsapato had a close friend by the name of Patrick Katupi from the same village, Chilembwe, in Thyolo District.
On August 12, 2023, Nsapato borrowed a phone from his friend Katupi for his personal use and in the phone, there was Airtel Money amounting to K120,000.00.
Nsapato knew the pin number for the Airtel Money and he cashed in the money and handed over the phone to the owner.
Then on August 13, 2023, the owner of the phone wanted to withdraw the money from his phone and it is during this time when he realized that the money has been withdrawn by unknown person.
The owner of the phone called Airtel Customer Care where it was revealed that the money was transferred to another Airtel Money number and it was revealed that Nsapato was the one who withdrawa the money.
Upon contacted, Nsapato admitted to have withdrawn the money and K21,000.00 was recovered from him and he was supposed to pay back the remaining money on Monday, August 14, 2023.
It was about 0:400 hours on August 14, 2023 where father to Nsapato went to his son’s house where he found the deceased hanging to the roof of his house.
The matter was reported to police, who in turn visited the scene accompanied by a medical practitioner where postmortem examination revealed that death was caused due to suffocation.
Meanwhile, Police in Balaka have condemned the act of resorting to committing suicide rather than seeking guidance from relevant authorities.-(Inspector Gladson M’bumpha, Balaka Police Station Public Relations Officer)
