On Wednesday, the Mumbai Sessions Court rejected a plea by Asiya Begum, the mother of Khwaja Yunus, to add the names of four police officers as accused in the case pertaining to his alleged custodial death.

Readers would recall that Yunus had been named as an accused in the 2002 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 in connection with the case. According to the police, he allegedly 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.

In 2018, Special Public Prosecutor Dhiraj Mirajkar had filed a plea seeking the addition of names of four more policemen to the case, namely – ACP Praful Bhosale, senior police inspectors Rajaram Vhanmane, Hemant Desai, and serving policeman Ashok Khot. This was after a witness named them and said that they had assaulted Yunus. But Mirajkar was then sacked by the government, allegedly for moving this plea. Pradip Gharat took over as the new SPP this year and sought to withdraw Mirajkar’s application.

According to the Indian Express, Gharat told the Sessions Court that the Bombay High Court had in 2012 rejected Asiya Begum’s plea challenging the lack of sanction to prosecute the four policemen and others, and the appeal against this decision was pending before the Supreme Court. Therefore, the matter pertaining to addition of the new names could not be decided until the outcome of that matter.

On Wednesday, Additional Sessions Judge VM Pathade allowed for the withdrawal of the prosecution’s plea.

It is noteworthy that at the previous hearing on August 25, Asiya Begum had filed a separate plea through advocate Chetan Mali to include the names of the four policemen as accused in the case. India Today quoted an excerpt from the plea: “The evidence clearly shows that they (proposed accused) have committed the offence. They must be tried in the interest of justice. All the proposed accused were named in the chargesheet, and it was only because of absence of sanction by the state to prosecute these men that the prosecution against them did not proceed.” But the Sessions Court rejected this plea on Wednesday as well.

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Suspension order of accused cops revoked, Khwaja Yunus’s mother moves Bombay HC

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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 30^th April 2004 by its order dated 9^th August 2004.” She also submits that “the order dated 7^th April, 2004 has merged into the order dated 30^th 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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The post Suspension order of accused cops revoked, Khwaja Yunus’s mother moves Bombay HC appeared first on SabrangIndia.