Khwaja Yunus custodial death case: Prosecution asks to examine cop initially named as accused in case
The prosecution in the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case on Tuesday filed an application before the trial court, seeking to examine retired police officer Ambadas Pote as its witness. Pote was initially made an accused in the case, but the state government had refused sanction to prosecute him
MUMBAI: The prosecution in the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case on Tuesday filed an application before the trial court, seeking to examine retired police officer Ambadas Pote as its witness. Pote was initially made an accused in the case, but the state government had refused sanction to prosecute him.
In the plea filed by special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat on Tuesday, the state CID claimed that it was necessary to examine Pote as a prosecution witness to establish the sequence of events, since there were no other key witnesses to prove that Yunus died while in the custody of the accused.
Yunus, a software engineer working in Dubai, was picked up by the Mumbai police’s Crime Branch from Parbhani in December 2002 in connection with the bomb blast in a BEST bus outside Ghatkopar railway station which killed two people and injured 50 others. The prosecution alleged that Yunus was tortured in the lock-up, and this led to his death.
In the plea, the prosecution said that it wanted to prove that Yunus was brought to Mumbai by Unit 1 of the Crime Branch and handed over to Arun Borude, the investigation officer of the case who was attached to the Powai-based Unit 8 of the Crime Branch. It was Borude who formally arrested Yunus on December 27, 2002, around 12.25 am and obtained his police custody on January 03, 2003, for investigation.
“Therefore, the primary and basic fact to be proved is that Sayyed Khwaja Yunus Khwaja Ayub was in the custody of Unit No 8 at the relevant time,” the prosecution said. “However, Ashok Borse, the station house officer of the Ghatkopar police station, where Khwaja was alleged to have been lodged, and Borude are both dead and hence not available to be examined as prosecution witnesses. Therefore, it is necessary to examine Ambadas Pote, the officer to whom the investigation was transferred, to establish the sequence of events at the time of the incident.”
The prosecution also clarified that Pote was named as an accused in the chargesheet filed by the state CID. The plea added that Pote’s name was subsequently dropped from the case after the court refused to take cognisance of the offence against him for want of governmental sanction to prosecute him.
The court has now asked the accused to file their replies to the plea.
According to the prosecution, Yunus was tortured while in police custody and this led to his death. The police, on the other hand, claimed that Yunus had escaped after the vehicle in which he was being taken to Aurangabad met with an accident in Ahmednagar district in January 2003.
A case was registered in connection with the custodial death, after it became clear that the accident story was cooked up. The probe was entrusted to the state CID in March 2003, which filed a chargesheet against 14 officials; however, the state did not grant sanction to prosecute 10 of them. This has been challenged by Yunus’ mother Asiya Begum and the matter is now pending before the Supreme Court.
Presently, four police personnel, including dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze (the prime accused in the Antilia explosives scare and connected murder of Mansukh Hiran), and three constables are facing trial for killing Khwaja while in their custody.
