Khwaja Yunus case: Court raps Maharashtra govt, CID, for failing to appoint spl prosecutor

The sessions court on Tuesday rapped the state crime investigation department (CID) and the Maharashtra government for their apathetic approach in appointing a special public prosecutor for the trial in Khwaja Yunus custodial death case.

The sessions court on Tuesday rapped the state crime investigation department (CID) and the state government for their apathetic approach in appointing a special public prosecutor for the trial in Khwaja Yunus custodial death case. “The approach of the investigating agency has been lackadaisical in such a serious offence like custodial death case,” observed the court.

Sachin Vaze and three constables were suspended from the police force in 2004 but were later reinstated. The sessions court on Tuesday pulled up the Maharashtra CID and the state government over the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case. (HT File)

The trial against four policemen including suspended cop Sachin Vaze, implicated in the case, a 2002 Ghatkopar blast accused, has been held up since 2018, shortly after it began, for the want of a special public prosecutor.

“As I have observed on past two dates, there is a delay at the instance of the prosecution to proceed with the case. The record reveals that despite repeated notices and letters to the police officers as well as the prosecution, no concrete steps are taken,” said additional sessions judge Dr UJ More.

Deputy superintendent of police (SP) Irfan Shaikh from state CID informed the court that the appointment has been approved by the additional chief secretary, home. The file, however, is now pending with the law and judiciary department.

“We don’t want you to just follow up and write letters or take concrete steps for a speedy trial. The last judge has observed that he was incapacitated before the agency,” the court asked.

Advocate Chetan Mali who represented Asiya Begum, mother of the victim - Khwaja Yunus, informed the court that a petition regarding the removal of Dhiraj Mirajkar as the special public prosecutor of the case is pending before the Bombay high court and is likely to be heard on Wednesday. A special leave petition has been filed in the Supreme Court regarding the sanctions to prosecute some more police officers in the case, he added.

The state through assistant public prosecutor has made a statement in the high court, that it won’t appoint anybody as a special public prosecutor in the case till the Bombay High Petition is decided, Mali said, adding that, they want Mirajkar to continue as special public prosecutor.

Vaze’s counsel told the court he was admitted at Wockhardt Hospital and had undergone bypass surgery.

The court asked the counsel for Yunus’s mother to file a status report by the next date about the pending matters before various courts and also asked the state CID to update it in the matter of appointment of special public prosecutor by the next date and adjourned the matter to October 27.

On December 2, 2002, a bomb went off in a BEST bus parked outside Ghatkopar railway station, during the evening rush hour, killing two and injuring over 50 people.

The Mumbai crime branch, of which Vaze was part, picked up a few persons including Yunus on December 25.

On January 7, 2003, Yunus was reported missing from police custody. The police claimed that he escaped with two other accused while they were being taken to Aurangabad when the vehicle carrying them met with an accident in Ahmednagar district.

An FIR was registered in connection with the incident at the Parner police station.

However, during an enquiry into the so-called accident conducted by the special Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court in Mumbai, Dr Abdul Mateen, who was also one of the accused, revealed that he had heard Yunus being beaten, and later vomiting, in an adjacent cell.

Mateen claimed that Yunus had likely died on January 6. This testimony was corroborated by a third accused in the case.

Vaze and three police constables - Rajendra Tiwari, Sunil Desai and Rajaram Nikam, are being prosecuted for the custodial death.