Khwaja Yunus case: Prosecution allowed to withdraw plea to prosecute four more cops

The court also rejected a plea filed by Yunus’s mother, Asiya Begum, to disallow the plea’s withdrawal

Mumbai The sessions court on Wednesday allowed the prosecution to withdraw a February 2018 plea filed by the state seeking prosecution of encounter specialist Praful Bhosle and three other police officers in the custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, an accused in 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case.

Khwaja Yunus’s Dubai photograph which he had sent to his mother (HT FIle)

The court also rejected a plea filed by Yunus’s mother, Asiya Begum, to disallow the plea’s withdrawal.

In February 2018, the then special prosecutor had moved the plea to summon four officers -- Bhosale, Hemant Desai, Rajaram Vhanmane and Ashok Khot -- to face trial in the case, after Dr Abdul Mateen, a key witness, mentioned their names.

While Bhosale and Vhanmane are retired, Khot is still serving.

The plea became a reason for the state government to appoint a new public prosecutor. However, the prosecutor sought to withdraw the plea, as it was filed without the consent of the government. When the prosecution made its plea, Asiya Begum moved court and opposed the move.

The public prosecutor stated that the issue of prosecuting these four officers was pending before the Supreme Court and the prosecution would be in a position to decide on the further course of action only after the apex court had decided on the matter.

“The acts (allegedly attributed to the police officers) viz. stripping Yunus to his underwear, tying his hands behind his back, whipping him with a belt, slapping and kicking him on his chest and abdomen, ascribed by PW 1 (Dr Mateen) in his evidence, to the four police officers he has named, cannot and do not in any view of the matter, fall within the ambit of the phrase actual or purported discharge of duty,” her application added.

Advocate Chetan Mali who represented Asiya Begum had urged the court to not allow the withdrawal of the application.

Yunus, a software engineer working in Dubai, was picked up by the Mumbai police crime branch from Parbhani in Marathwada in December 2002 in connection with the bomb blast in a BEST bus outside Ghatkopar railway station which killed two people and injured 50 others.

The prosecution alleged that Yunus was tortured while in police custody and this led to his death. The police on the other hand claimed that Yunus had escaped after the vehicle in which he was being taken to Aurangabad met with an accident in Ahmednagar district in January 2003.

A case was registered in connection with the custodial death, after the accident story was found to be purportedly false, and the probe was entrusted to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in March 2003. The CID filed a chargesheet against 14 officials but the state did not grant sanction to prosecute 10 of them. This was challenged by Asiya Begum and the matter is now pending before the Supreme Court.

At present, four police personnel, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze (the prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and connected murder of Mansukh Hiran), and three constables are facing trial for killing Khwaja while in their custody.