A man in Blantyre has told the Malawi Human Rights Commission(MHRC) that he would make himself available before any court coroner, on request, to provide information on how Polytechnic student Robert Chasowa died in September last year.
Chasowa, a fourth year Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering student at the Polytechnic, University of Malawi, was mysteriously found dead on the Polytechnic campus grounds in early morning hours of September 24.
The man, whose identity The Daily Times has, told the MHRC he would not give out the information at the moment because he feared for his personal security.
The MHRC declined his demand for payment for his information and guarantee for his security.
This information is contained in a preliminary investigations report reference no. HRC/05/03/02/BT which has since been sent to the new Commission of Inquiry into the mysterious death of Chasowa, which caused controversy and attracted donor attention.
MHRC spokesperson Mike Chipalasa confirmed Monday that his office did file the report to the Commission of Inquiry that President Joyce Banda instituted.
The exact cause of Chasowa’s death was fraught with controversy as conflicting reports emerged.
An initial police revelation indicated Chasowa had committed suicide, a position taken based on a suicide note he allegedly authored announcing he was taking his own life.
It was concluded he had thrown himself from one of the buildings at the Polytechnic to his death.
But a postmortem by pathologist Charles Dzamalala told a different story. It suggested Chasowa had been bludgeoned to death by a blunt edged material as the examination showed skull fractures and internal bleeding in the head.
These findings, Dzamalala concluded, were not consistent with a fall from a height as had been suggested.
