Asiya Begum is unwavering in her determination to get justice for the custodial torture and murder of her son Khwaja Yunus who was allegedly falsely implicated in the Ghatkopar blast case and then killed in custody.
On April 7, 2004, the Bombay High Court had passed an order suspending four police officials suspected of involvement in the matter and asked for a departmental enquiry to be conducted against them. But on June 5, 2020, the Commissioner of Police has revoked the suspension order. This prompted Asiya Begum to move Bombay HC against the impugned order.
In her petition Asiya Begum submits that “the State Government did not comply with the order but challenged the same before the Hon’ble Supreme Court. The Hon’ble Supreme rejected the challenge to the order dated 30th April 2004 by its order dated 9th August 2004.” She also submits that “the order dated 7th April, 2004 has merged into the order dated 30th April, 2004 which disposed of the Petition and the directions to suspend and hold an enquiry continued to be operative.”
She prays that the revocation of suspension order be withdrawn and that appropriate action be taken against the Commissioner of Police for such a blatant contempt of a court order.
Asiya Begum’s entire petition may be read here:
Brief background of the Khwaja Yunus case
In 2002, Asiya Begum’s son Khwaja Yunus was arrested after being accused of playing a role in the Ghatkopar blast case, where a bomb placed on a BEST bus exploded killing two and injuring 50 people on December 2, 2002. 27-year-old Sayed Khwaja Yunus Sayed Ayub, originally from Parbhani district in Maharashtra, worked as a software engineer in Dubai. He was arrested from Chikaldhara and police claimed that he escaped while being transported to Aurangabad.
But a Crime Investigation Division (CID) inquiry revealed that he had actually died in police custody in January 2003. The inquiry had indicted four policemen including ‘encounter specialist’ Sachin Vaze and constables Rajendra Tiwari, Rajendra Nikam and Sunil Desai. They have been charged with murder, voluntarily causing grievious hurt to extort confession, fabricating evidence and criminal conspiracy.
Trial in the custodial death case commenced at the Mumbai Sessions Court in 2017 where Dr Abdul Mateen, who was previously a co-accused in the Ghatkopar blast case and was subsequently exonerated, deposed that he saw Khwaja Yunus being beaten mercilessly till he vomited blood.
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