A sessions court on Tuesday asked the state to appoint a special public prosecutor in the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case by Monday, considering that the Supreme Court has directed it to expeditiously decide two pleas that have been in abeyance since 2018.
The case, in which controversial dismissed policeman Sachin Vaze is the main accused along with three constables, has been in limbo since April 2018 when its special public prosecutor Dhiraj Mirajkar’s appointment was cancelled by the state government. Mirajkar had made an application under Sec 319 of the CrPC (power to proceed against other accused appearing to be guilty of offence) to add four policemen as accused in the case as evidence emerged against them during testimony of an important witness. The policemen had also made pleas to be heard before the application was decided. It is these two pleas that the apex court has asked the trial court to decide.
The sessions court stated on Tuesday that despite specific orders in July and August last year to appoint a special public prosecutor, there is no concrete process at the end of the state government. It noted that the chief public prosecutor was present on Tuesday and has assured that he will inform the state government to take a strong initiative for the appointment. Additional Sessions Judge Dr. UJ More said there is a ‘lackadaisical’ approach from the prosecution agency in the matter since 2018 and pointed out that the matter is old. It said despite the apex court directing it to expeditiously decide the pleas, still there is no progress on appointment of the prosecutor. “Once again the prosecution is directed to get appointment done at the instance of the state government on or before the next date, considering specific directions of the Supreme Court to decide both applications,” the court stated.
The case pertains to the custodial death of 27-year-old software engineer from Parbhani Khwaja Yunus in 2003. Yunus, who was working in Dubai and had come for vacation to his hometown, had been picked up by the police in connection with the 2002 Ghatkopar Blast along with three other men. While the three were acquitted later by a court, eyewitnesses have stated to the state CID that probed the case, that Yunus was assaulted and tortured leading to his death in custody. An FIR filed in the matter of Yunus’s disappearance had claimed earlier that he had escaped the custody of the police team which was taking him to Aurangabad for investigation.
Early last month, the apex court directed the trial court to proceed with deciding the two pleas. This was in response to Yunus’s mother Asiya Begum approaching it for a clarification whether the pleas can be decided by the trial court when her appeal against a Bombay High Court order was pending before it. Begum had appealed against the Bombay High Court’s order that had rejected her prayer to direct that the state grant sanction for prosecuting more policemen, after the state government had denied sanction to prosecute them.
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