Khwaja Yunus case: Ex-cop Sachin Waze ready to spill all for pardon

Encounter specialist Sachin Waze being felicitated by Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray in 2008. Fiile pic/Rane Ashish

In a new twist to the Khwaja Yunus case, prime accused, former cop Sachin Waze on Monday, filed an application asking for pardon in return for turning approver. Waze and three other policemen stand accused of murder in the custodial death of Parbhani-based techie Khwaja Yunus.

In his application, Waze wrote, "I have decided to stick to my self-conscience (sic) and thus I wish to make full and true disclosure within my knowledge relative to the offence and to every other person concerned, whether as a principal or abettor, in the commission thereof."

Yunus was arrested as a suspect in the December 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case, which killed two. However, in January 2003, it was claimed that he had "escaped" when the jeep in which he was being taken to Aurangabad had an accident. He was then said to have "disappeared".

Former police officer Sachin Waze on March 9, 2004. File pic

Waze, who along with three other cops, was escorting Yunus, had filed an FIR to this effect. But a court-ordered investigation by the CID into his "disappearance" alleged that Yunus, then just 27 years old, had been murdered in custody, and his dead body had then been disposed of by Waze and three others.

Fourteen cops were indicted, but the Maharashtra government sanctioned prosecution only of the four who were supposedly escorting him to Aurangabad. These were Waze, and constables Rajendra Tiwari, Rajaram Nikam and Sunil Desai. A petition to include the remaining cops is pending in the Supreme Court.

However, in his approver application, Waze suggests that he had no idea that the person handed over to him was Yunus. "I joined the investigation only on January 6 and I did not have any mechanism to verify the identity of the arrested terrorists. The terrorist Khwaja Yunus as appears in the photo in the case papers as well as in the newspapers was never handed over to me."

Yunus was allegedly assaulted in custody on January 6, 2003. Waze filed the FIR on January 7, 2003.

"There is more here than meets the eye," said senior counsel Mihir Desai, who has been fighting the case on behalf of Yunus' mother. "If what he says now is true, why did he name Khwaja Yunus in the FIR filed by him? This case is now 20 years old. All this time, he has claimed the person was Khwaja Yunus."

It may be noted that Waze and his fellow accused have made innumerable applications to delay the trial, which only began in January 2018. It, however, came to a standstill immediately after the first witness, Dr Abdul Mateen, also an accused in the Ghatkopar blast case, deposed.

Mateen had deposed that he had seen four policemen - ACP Praful Bhosale, Inspector Hemant Desai, Senior Police Inspector Rajaram Vhanmane and Police Inspector Ashok Khot, assaulting Yunus on January 6, 2003, inside the Ghatkopar Crime Branch unit, till he collapsed. He was not seen alive after that.

Waze and his three co-accused were not named by Mateen. After Mateen's deposition, the then Special Public Prosecutor (PP) DU Mirajkar had filed an application asking that the cops named by Mateen be named as additional accused. Immediately after that, Mirajkar was dismissed, and the trial came to a standstill.

It emerged later that the government was not happy with Mirajkar's application and wanted him to withdraw it. In September 2022, the trial court allowed the PP appointed after Mirajkar's dismissal, Pradeep Gharat, to withdraw the petition. A petition challenging this is pending in the High Court. The trial court's order effectively meant that Waze and his three co-accused remain the only accused in the case.