Year after Yunus went missing, cop arrested

Recovering from a heart attack suffered on one of his countless trips to the Bombay High Court, the old man finally breathes easy. ‘‘This gives us some hope that the case will now proceed,’’ he says in a feeble voice over the cell phone.

It is over a year now since Khwaja Yunus disappeared while allegedly being escorted in a police van to Aurangabad. A 26-year-old computer professional based in the Gulf, Yunus was on a short holiday when he was picked up for suspected links with a group accused of masterminding the Ghatkopar blast in December 2002 which killed two persons.

His family, fearing he had been killed in a fake encounter, filed a habeas corpus plea. The testimony of a co-accused — a doctor from JJ Hospital, Abdul Mateen — that he had seen a pale Yunus vomiting blood in prison fuelled suspicion.

‘‘How was it possible for a van to overturn and knock out four policemen while Yunus, who was in handcuffs, escaped?’’ a family member said. The team allegedly escorting Yunus — three constables along with Vaze — were suspended and a probe ordered, but months later, the assistant inspector was reinstated. Vaze, a protege of the man who is now in custody for his role in the Telgi scam — Pradeep Sawant — even managed to get transfer orders cancelled.

The Syed family had almost given up hope until a fortnight ago when the Bombay HC ordered the CID to file a statement on the investigation. The deadline was March 3 failing which, the court warned, the case was likely to be handed over to the CBI. Today, as the government swung into action and placed Vaze under arrest, the judges deferred the hearing by two days. Khwaja’s lawyer Majeed Memon said: ‘‘We will press for a CBI inquiry because we want an independent agency to extract the truth from the debris. We fear that the CID will hesitate in taking action against its own brethren.’’

Yunus’s brother-in-law S K Liakhuddin says Vaze’s arrest is just the tip of the iceberg. ‘‘Sirf Vaze ko arrest karne se kaam nahi chalega (Arresting Vaze is not enough),’’ he said. ‘‘All the policemen who were there during the interrogation that night should be questioned…He was obviously acting on somebody’s instructions. What about those who actually killed Yunus?’’

Waze was arrested last night from his Thane residence and a search has been launched for the three constables, who are absconding. The arrest may open a Pandora’s box to reveal links with senior officers of the elite Crime Intelligence Unit.

(with inputs from Abhishek Sharan)