Asiya Begum sitting on a fast in Mumbai.
| Photo Credit: File Photo
It has been 20 years since a mother has been filing applications and petitions in different courts to ensure smooth and speedy trial against police officers who allegedly killed her son Khwaja Yunus in police custody on January 6, 2003.
Asiya Begum, 74, has filed her latest application before the Bombay High Court challenging an order passed by the trial court on September 7, 2022, allowing the withdrawal of an application by the fourth Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the case, Pradeep Gharat. Mr. Gharat on August 4, 2022, had withdrawn the application filed by the previous SPP Dhiraj Mirajkar under Section 319 (power to proceed against other persons appearing to be guilty of offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
‘Beaten to death’
The third SPP, Mr. Mirajkar had filed an application under Section 319 of CrPC to add retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Praful Bhosale and senior inspectors, Rajaram Vhanmane, Ashok Khot, and Hemant Desai, as accused in the on-going trial. This application was made after the eyewitness, Dr. Abdul Mateen, had deposed in court on January 17, 2018, that he saw these four police officers beat Yunus in police custody.
As soon as Mr. Mirajkar filed the application, he was removed from the case. He said in an email, “I got a call from someone in mantralaya who inquired about who had instructed me to file the application. I replied that no instructions were received from anyone, nor any instructions were needed in view of the clear provision of law. Shortly, I got a call to meet the Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) at mantralaya who wanted to discuss the issue with me and that I would be free in 10 minutes. After I waited for two hours, I went to meet the Principal Secretary, who said there was no need to have called me there. Then, on the day of the trial, the Chief Public Prosecutor appeared and informed the court that I had been removed.”
The recent revision application, filed by Ms. Asiya in December 2022, urged the High Court for a direction to reject the application filed by Mr. Gharat.
The trial is currently being held against former Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze and three policemen — Rajendra Tiwari, Rajaram Nikam and Sunil Desai — as accused in the case. They are charged with conspiracy, destruction of evidence and murder.
Case history
Sayed Khwaja Yunus Sayed Ayub, remembered as Khwaja Yunus , was a software engineer working in Dubai. The 27-year-old was visiting his family in India in December 2002.
He was holidaying at his hometown in Parbhani when a bomb ripped through a BEST bus in Ghatkopar killing two and injuring over 50 people. He was picked up by the Ghatkopar police and was remanded to police custody under the now-repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act in January 2003.
In their statements, witnesses said Yunus vomited blood for three days and then died in custody on January 6, 2003.
The police have maintained that he ran away when he was being taken from Mumbai to Aurangabad in a jeep.
Among the 10 petitions filed by Ms Asiya, one of them sought compensation after her son’s body was not given to her even after seven years of his death.
Advocate Chetan Mali, appearing for Ms. Asiya in the courts, said, “Look at the state of the victim, she has been fighting for the last 20 years in the trial court, in the High Court and in the Supreme Court. She has filed six petitions, of which three are pending, one of them is against former Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Param Bir Singh, seeking action against him for contempt of court for reinstating Mr. Vaze in police force. The second is challenging the reinstatement and seeking Mr. Vaze’s removal, the third is challenging the removal of previous Special Public Prosecutor.”
Ms Begum told Today News 24, “It has been 20 years and I have been fighting. I have been going to court for each and everything, whether it is to see my son’s body or to get a new sarkari vakil (public prosecutor). I am old but I will fight till the end. I want all the police officers who are responsible for my son’s death to be added as accused. I will keep knocking the doors of all the courts till that happens. Because I believe truth will prevail.”
Mr .Gharat said, “The decision to withdraw the application under section 319 of CrPC was entirely mine as the sanction to prosecute the officers has been rejected.”
So far only one witness has been examined and around 90 witnesses are left to depose.
