Khwaja Yunus custodial death: Court likely to decide next month if 3 ex-cops can be tried as accused

The state government, through Special Public Prosecutor Pradip Gharat, however, said that such a decision should not be made at this stage. The sessions court will decide on both pleas on September 7.

On August 3, Gharat had told the court that the state wants to withdraw the application to include retired policemen Praful Bhosale, Rajaram Vhanmane and Hemant Desai as well as serving officer Ashok Khot as accused in the case.

The plea was moved in 2018 by the previous prosecutor, Dhiraj Mirajkar, who was sacked by the government for filing the application. Since the state sought to withdraw it, Yunus’ mother, Asiya Begum, moved a plea on Thursday to include the four as accused.

On Thursday, Gharat said that the Bombay High Court, in 2012, had said that the state’s decision to not grant sanction to prosecute the four was correct. He added that an appeal against this order, filed by Begum, is pending before the Supreme Court.

“This court cannot act further on the issue of joining the proposed accused in the case till the outcome of the SC petition,” the plea moved by Gharat said. In January, the SC had directed the sessions court to decide on the plea without awaiting the pendency of the appeal.

Gharat also opposed the fresh plea filed by Yunus’ mother stating that she wants a “parallel prosecution”. “When an application moved by the previous prosecutor on the same point is already pending, how can the victim make an application independently? The role of the victim is limited to assisting the prosecution and therefore, she cannot be permitted to move such an application,” he told the court, adding that it amounted to interference in the trial.

Lawyer Chetan Mali, representing Begum, who is an intervener in the case, said that there were legal precedents to allow a victim to move an application on her own. He added that the SC had directed the sessions court to decide on the plea moved under Section 319 (power to proceed against other persons appearing to be guilty of offence) of the Criminal Procedure Code and if the state was withdrawing it, he had powers to file one on behalf of the victim.

Lawyer Subhash Jha, representing the four men, said that the victim was trying to get a “backdoor entry” to include the four as accused even though the HC had rejected her plea.

Jha cast aspersions on the witness testimony stating that both Yunus and the witness were booked in a blast case. Mali told the court that the witness and others booked with Yunus were cleared of all charges.

Yunus, a software engineer from Parbhani, was arrested by the Mumbai Police in December 2002 for his alleged role in the Ghatkopar bomb blast that took that same month. He was last seen in police custody on January 6, 2003. In 2018, the first prosecution witness – Yunus’ co-accused at that time – had named the four men saying that they had assaulted Yunus to such an extent that he was seen vomiting blood.