The State CID team probing the death of Khwaja Yunus, a 26-year-old engineer accused of being involved in the December 2, 2002 Ghatkopar blast, has uncovered more lies in the police FIR.The police had earlier claimed that Yunus escaped from custody when the jeep taking him to Aurangabad met with an accident on January 7, 2003. According to the FIR, filed by assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze who has since been suspended, a passing truck was stopped for help after the accident. In his FIR, Vaze cited two possible licence numbers for the truck — either CG04 9632 or CG04 3692. ‘‘One of these numbers belongs to a scooter in Jharkhand, the other to a tanker owner in Ahmedabad,’’ revealed a CID officer. Neither vehicle owner was in Maharashtra that day.Fourteen policemen involved in what is now being seen as a custodial death claimed to have been either in a village in Ratnagiri, or at their residences in Powai, Versova or Andheri. Records from mobile companies now prove that they were all travelling between Uran in Navi Mumbai and Kalwa in Thane district on that day.Vaze also said the party escorting Yunus made a halt at Lonavala. Yunus was reportedly handed over to the custody of Head Constable Kisan Gaikwad of Lonavala police station for an hour, while Vaze’s team had dinner.Deposing in court, Gaikwad said the accused was in a burqa. The CID now believes that the man ‘‘in custody’’ was actually a police constable.Earlier, in a statement before the High Court, co-accused Dr Abdul Mateen had described how Yunus was beaten on his chest — with belts and boots — until he vomitted blood. Mateen said Police Inspectors Rajendra Joshi and Arun Borude warned him against repeating what he’d seen.Meanwhile, Borude, along with ACP Ambadas Pote, failed to keep their date with the CID, which had summoned the duo today. Borude later said they were filing an affidavit in HC. However, Deputy Commissioner of Police (CID) Sudesh Padvi said they should have informed him.Also to be questioned is a senior Crime Branch officer, who claimed to have received a letter from the Abu Dhabi police seeking someone fitting Yunus’s description. Yunus was a chemical engineer working in Dubai.
