A city civil and sessions court on Monday issued notices to the Commissioner of Police (CP) and Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) for the ineffective handling of the Khwaja Yunus custodial death of 2003.
Additional Sessions Judge V.S. Padalkar, who is presiding over the case, observed that the witnesses were not in court. Irked at this, the court said, “Proper care and caution has not been taken to produce witnesses.”
The court also took into account that the CP and ACP have failed to submit a report of all the summons issued to the witnesses and issued a notice to them to explain what action is proposed against the investigating officer in the case.
Judge Padalkar also admonished the defence as, among the accused, only Rajendra Tiwari and Rajaram Nikam were in court while Sachin Vaze and Sunil Desai were not.
On January 17, 2018, prime witness, Dr. Abdul Mateen, had told the court he saw four other police inspectors from Ghatkopar police station assault Yunus, who was vomiting blood. Thereafter, special public prosecutor Dhiraj Mirajkar put in an application to make (retired) ACP Praful Bhosale, senior inspector Rajaram Vhanmane and inspectors Hemant Desai and Ashok Khot accused in the case. The State government cancelled Mr. Mirajkar’s appointment in the case.
Yunus was picked up from Parbhani in connection with a blast in a BEST bus in Ghatkopar. Witnesses said he vomited blood for three days and died in police custody on January 7, 2003. The trial against Mr. Vaze, Mr. Tiwari, Mr. Nikam and Mr. Desai started on May 3, 2017.
The matter has been posted to June 26 for hearing.