Over four years after the Maharashtra government removed the special public prosecutor (SPP) in the Khwaja Yunus alleged custodial death case, a new special public prosecutor has been appointed. Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat made his first appearance before the trial court on Wednesday. The notification for Gharat's appointment was issued on Tuesday. No witness was present in court on Wednesday and the case has now been adjourned till August 3. In April 2018, the previous prosecutor, Dhiraj Mirajkar, was removed after he moved an application seeking to make four more policemen stand trial, based on the testimony of the first witness in the case, who had named them among those who allegedly assaulted Yunus. The state government had previously not given sanction to add the four policemen as accused. Currently, four other policemen are facing trial on charges of destruction of evidence and murder. Over the past four years, the trial court has pulled up the CID for not taking steps to initiate the trial, which had come to a standstill due to the lack of appointment of a special public prosecutor. Yunus' mother, Asiya Begum, had approached the Bombay High Court for reinstatement of Mirajkar, but he was unwilling to continue after his removal. Then, based on the High Court's direction, three lawyers were suggested by Begum to the state government for appointment as special public prosecutor. The High Court had said that the state, in its wisdom, could select a rightful candidate as the SPP even if he or she is not from the names suggested by Begum. Yunus, a 27-year old software engineer from Parbhani, was arrested as an accused, along with several others, for a bomb blast that took place in Ghatkopar on December 2, 2002. His alleged co-accused were acquitted of all charges subsequently by a special court. While the police claimed that Yunus had escaped from custody, his then co-accused, who was the first prosecution witness before the trial court in January, had submitted that he had seen Yunus being stripped and assaulted on January 6, 2003, and that he never saw him after that day. Based on the complaint of Yunus' co-accused in 2003, an FIR was filed against the policemen. As many as 14 policemen were named in the chargesheet but the state government didn't grant sanction to prosecute 10 of them. So far, only one witness has deposed in the case.
