Khwaja Yunus custodial death: Ex-special public prosecutor questions state govt's motive

Asiya Begum, Yunus’s mother, Khwaja Yunus, Sachin Waze, now dismissed, is an accused in this case, too. Pics/Twiter

An affidavit filed last week in the Bombay High Court by Asiya Begum, mother of Khwaja Yunus, the 27-year-old software engineer murdered in police custody in 2003, reveals the dubious role of the Maharashtra government in handling Yunus's custodial death case, in which ex-cop Sachin Waze is the main accused. Senior advocate Dhiraj U Mirajkar, appointed as Special PP in the case, was summarily removed in April 2018. The trial has since been at a standstill as Asiya Begum approached the high court asking that Mirajkar, chosen by her, be reinstated.

Last month, the Advocate General told the court that Mirajkar was unwilling to return to the case due to various reasons, including health issues. But Mirajkar has denied any health issues in an email to Asiya Begum's lawyer Chetan Malee. In the email, which has been reproduced in an additional affidavit filed by Asiya Begum, Mirajkar points out that since his removal, he has been on three forest treks and also gone scuba diving. Yunus, an accused in the December 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case in which two people were killed, was said to have "disappeared'' on January 7, 2003, while being taken to Aurangabad under police escort. However, a court-directed CID inquiry found that he had been killed in police custody.

Fourteen policemen were named for the murder by the CID, but the Maharashtra government sanctioned prosecution of only four of them.
The first witness to depose was Dr Abdul Mateen, also an accused in the same case, who was acquitted in 2005 along with the other co-accused. On January 17, 2018, he told a Sessions Court that he had seen Yunus being tortured in the Ghatkopar Crime Branch lock-up on January 6, 2003, by four cops till he collapsed. He didn't see Yunus again.

The cops named by Mateen were not the same as those standing trial. An application was therefore filed by Mirajkar that those named by Mateen be added as accused. In his email, Mirajkar recounts that after he filed this application, he received a call from Mantralaya asking who had instructed him to do so. Mirajkar replied that no instructions were received "nor were any necessary in view of the clear provisions of the law". A few days later, Mirajkar was called to Mantralaya to meet the Additional Chief Secretary Home. He was told it would take 10 minutes. But despite waiting for three hours, the latter didn't meet him and finally he was told by the Principal Secretary, Law, that he need not have come. In his absence, a case of his for which elderly witnesses had come from Pune got adjourned.

At the next hearing of the Khwaja Yunus case on April 17, 2018, the court was told that Mirajkar no longer represented the government. No one had informed him of this decision, Mirajkar writes.

After Asiya Begum filed her plea asking that he be reinstated, Mirajkar was told to meet the Advocate General, who asked him just one question: were he to be re-appointed, would he withdraw the application? On Mirajkar saying "No", he was told that that was the reply expected of him. Nothing else was discussed.

Recounting these developments, Mirajkar writes: "The disturbing aspect of this case is that some faceless bureaucrat(s) actively connived with the police personnel responsible for causing the death of a person in custody in order to thwart criminal proceedings, and they have successfully managed to cause further delay in an already inordinately delayed trial. Those persons, whatever their motivation, will have gotten off scot-free.'' Mirajkar writes that he had planned to file another application: asking for names of officers who had sanctioned the "so-called taking of Yunus to Aurangabad.'' This, he writes, would have been "another opportunity for the invisible guardians of the delinquent police officers to remove a Special Public Prosecutor for going beyond his ‘brief'.''

Also revealed in the mail is that Mirajkar was not even given the case charge sheet by the government. In view of all this, concludes Mirajkar, "I feel that it is highly improper [and imprudent, besides undignified] for the government to re-appoint me as also for me to accept.''

2003
Year Khwaja Yunus was killed