By TwoCircles.net staff reporter,
Mumbai (Maharashtra): The Bombay High Court on 7th August asked the state government to present it with the records on the basis thereof no action has been taken against 10 police officers accused in the custodial killing of Khwaja Yunus in January 2003.
A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Bilal Nazki and Justice A A Kumbhakoni has asked the government to file the report by 13th August, says a report in Urdu daily The Inquilab.
On the order of the high court, the state CID was assigned investigation into the killing of Yunus who was detained in connection with 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast. The report submitted by CID to Director General of Police on 3rd May 2007 said that out of 42 police officers investigated in the case only 14 were found involved. But the prosecution was started only against 4 and 10 were let free.
Engineer Yunus was arrested in connection with the blast in a state transport bus in Ghatkopar on December 2, 2002. Two persons were killed in the blast and 46 injured.
On January 7, 2003 a complaint was filed by an assistant police inspector in the case that while a police team was taking Yunus to Aurangabad, the van met with an accident on way and Yunus fled away. But the police story was blasted by Dr Abdul Mateen, an accused in the Ghatkopar blast case, saying that Yunus was brutally tortured in the custody and he succumbed to the torture.
Khwaja Yunus case time line
2002 Dec 02: Ghatokpur bomb blast
2002 Dec 23: Khwaja Yunus is picked up near his house in Parbhani.
2003 Jan 3: Charged under POTA along with others in Mumbai.
2003 Jan 7: Khwaja Yunus is killed
2003 May: Case handed over to the state CID.
2004 April: Bombay High Court terms FIR filed by police inspector Sachin Vaze was false and fictitious. He had recorded that Yunus was killed when he escaped from police custody. Court was responding to a habeas corpus petition filed by Yunus’ father.
2004 March 3: CID arrested Sachin Vaze and charged him with murder along with three constables.
2005 March 5:Maharashtra CID arrested four Crime branch police officers including Senior Police Inspector Praful Bhosle, Assistant Police Inspectors Hemant Desai and Rajan Vanmane and Police Sub-Inspector Ashoke Khot from the Crime Intlligence Unit (CIU) at Ghatkopar.