Won’t appoint new SPP in Khwaja Yunus case till Oct 14, Maharashtra govt tells Bombay HC

Asiya Begum, mother of custodial death victim Khwaja Yunus, had approached the HC challenging the 2018 decision of Maharashtra to remove the then SPP Dhiraj Mirajkar who represented the state in the lower court without assigning a reason

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday adjourned hearing on the petition filed by Asiya Begum, mother of custodial death victim Khwaja Yunus, till October 14, after the state government informed the HC that it would not appoint a special public prosecutor (SPP) until then. Begum had approached the HC challenging the 2018 decision of the state to remove the then SPP Dhiraj Mirajkar who represented the state in the lower court without assigning a reason.

The Bombay high court (HC) on Wednesday adjourned hearing on the petition filed by Asiya Begum, mother of custodial death victim Khwaja Yunus, till October 14, after the Maharashtra government informed the HC that it would not appoint a special public prosecutor (SPP) until then

The division bench of justice Prasanna Varale and justice Nitin Borkar, while hearing the petition by the mother of Khwaja Yunus, a suspect in the 2002 Ghatkopar blast, who died in police custody in 2003, was informed by senior advocate Mihir Desai that the petition challenged the government’s decision to remove SPP Dhiraj Mirajkar from the trial.

Desai also informed the bench that the petition also sought action against former Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh, as he had defied an earlier HC order to conduct an inquiry against the officers who were accused in the custodial death of Yunus by reinstating them without conducting the inquiry. The four suspended policemen accused of the custodial death of Yunus included Sachin Vaze as well.

While referring to the hearing of the trial in the sessions court, Desai submitted that after the sessions court rapped the state and crime investigation department (CID) for the slow progress in the trial, the government lawyer had informed the sessions court that a proposal to appoint a new prosecutor has been approved by the additional chief secretary (Home) and was now placed before the law and judiciary department.

Desai referred to and submitted that during a hearing of Begum’s petition challenging the removal of Mirajkar in HC in July 2018, advocate general (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhakoni had made an oral statement that the state would not appoint a new SPP till the petition was heard. However, the state was in the process of appointing a new SPP thus going back on its statement.

Mirajkar was appointed on September 2, 2015, and then removed in 2018.

Additional public prosecutor (APP) Sangeeta Shinde informed the bench that the AG wanted to address the court and hence sought an adjournment.

After hearing the request, the bench asked, “Can you tell us that till we hear AG Kumbhakoni, you will not make any hurry in appointing SPP? This is what the court wants so that we will not permit a sudden change.”

On instructions from the AG and the law and judiciary department, APP Shinde stated that no new SPP would be appointed till the next hearing, which was accepted by the HC. The next hearing will be held on October 14.

Khwaja Yunus, a 27-year-old software engineer, was arrested in December 2002 for his alleged role in the Ghatkopar bomb blast case and was last seen alive by his fellow accused on January 6, 2003. Though the police claimed that Yunus had died after he tried to escape while being ferried by a team led by Vaze, one of the accused had stated that Yunus was brutally assaulted in custody. Thereafter, the CID had booked the four policemen including Vaze for Yunus custodial death.