Khwaja Yunus custodial death: Prosecution seeks to summon retired encounter specialist Praful Bhosle, 3 others

Mateen had, last month, told the court that Yunus was beaten up by four police officers when he was lodged in custody in connection with the 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case.

Prosecution in the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case moved an application on Thursday to summon encounter specialist Praful Bhosle and three other cops.

The move came after Dr Abdul Mateen, the key witness in the case, mentioned the names of the four officers.

Mateen had, last month, told the court that Yunus was beaten up by four police officers when he was lodged in custody in connection with the 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case.

Mateen identified the four cops who assaulted Yunus as Praful Bhosle, Hemant Desai, Rajaram Vhanmane and Ashok Khot.

Taking forward from Mateen’s deposition, special public prosecutor Dhiraj Mirazkar moved a plea to proceed against the four officers and issue summons to them.

“Dr Mateen’s evidence unambiguously indicates the involvement of at least these four police officers in the custodial assault, resulting in the death of Khwaja Yunus. They should be made to face trial. Summons in the first instance should be issued upon the said officers to appear and answer the charges in this case,” reads the application.

Criticising the stand taken by the government, the prosecution in their application stated that “It is respectfully submitted that such an approach would be a wholly impermissible and unwarranted exercise of forecasting the result of a prosecution before it had been launched,” reads the application.

The court has now scheduled the hearing of the application on February 26.