Oriental Plaza attempted robbery suspect, Tumisang Rammapudi, was arraigned before Broadhurst Magistrate Gaseitsiwe Tonoki this Tuesday.
The 28-yearo-old Rammapudi and four others not in court are facing two counts of attempted murder and attempted robbery.
A video clip of the dramatic attempted robbery went viral on social media showing two men attempting to rob a Chinese man in the parking lot on Saturday at the Oriental Plaza shopping centre.
Court heard that Rammapudi and others on the 3rd of October at Oriental Plaza Block 3 Gaborone acting jointly together in concert, attempted to cause the death of Boniface Musa.
On count two the accused person and the other four, using a blue Demio Mazda car of registration number B238 BKU on the 3rd of October at Oriental Plaza, attacked and tried to rob Huang Daming of Mei Ming Spice Workshop.
State Prosecutor Sub Inspector Mothootsile Mekgwe told the court that the matter was still fresh and that investigations had just started.
He said they had not finished registering witnesses’ statements and pleaded with court not to grant the accused bail.
“The investigating officers need more time to work on this case. They are still in search of the other suspects. The accused is likely to temper with the police investigations, should he be granted bail,” said Mekgwe
When asked if he had anything to say, Rammapudi asked court to grant him bail as he is a first time offender.
He said he was not driving the car and that he was just a passenger who did not know the mission for the other suspects at large.
Magistrate Tonoki told the accused person to save his defence for trial.
He agreed with the prosecution to have Rammapudi’s remand warrant extended to allow for the police to complete their investigations.
The accused person will be back in court on the 20th of October for mention.
