Khwaja Yunus case: Court accepts plea for not trying four cops

Mumbai: A sessions court has allowed the prosecution to withdraw the 2018 plea of making four more cops, besides dismissed cop Sachin Vaze and three constables, accused in the 2003 Khwaja Yunus custodial death case. A detailed order is awaited.

However, Yunus' mother sought to prosecute cops Praful Bhosale, Hemant Desai, Rajaram Vhanmane and Ashok Khot after the prosecution last month informed the court that it intends to withdraw the plea.

The plea to name these cops as accused was made four years ago by previous special public prosecutor Dhiraj Mirajkar. The application was based on the testimony of a doctor, the first witness, to depose about the alleged assault and torture meted out to Yunus in the police custody.

The 27-year-old software engineer was arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2002 Ghatkopar blast case. The doctor, too, was picked up, but later acquitted.

Mirajkar was removed from the case two months after he made the plea. The state government had not granted sanction to prosecute the four cops. Yunus’s mother challenged the state's decision before the Supreme Court, after the Bombay High Court declined to interfere.

While the plea filed by Mirajkar was pending, the apex court had asked the trial court to decide it. The matter had been in a limbo as the government had not appointed a special public prosecutor after Mirajkar’s removal.

On August 3, the newly-appointed special public prosecutor Pradip Gharat had informed the court that the prosecution intends to withdraw the 2018 plea.

Last month, in a formal plea, the court was informed by the prosecution that it does not wish to press the plea at this stage. It averred that it reserves the right to act against the accused depending on the apex court’s order on Begum’s plea.

On the same day, Yunus’s mother had made a plea, seeking that the four cops should be tried for the offence. The court had then questioned how she could make the plea as she is only permitted to assist the prosecutor as an intervenor or victim.