HC grants time till Nov 20 to Mah govt in Yunus case

Mumbai, Oct 8 (UNI) The Bombay high court today granted time till November 20 to the state government to decide on the sanction to prosecute police officers, involved in the alleged custodial death of Sayyad Khwaja Yunus, an accused in the Ghatkopar Best bus bomb blast case of December 2002.

A division bench comprising Justice R M S Khandeparkar and Justice V K Tahilramani had last time directed a court in Parner in Ahemednagar district to decide on a pending B-summary proceeding, which was cited by the state authorities as a hindrance in deciding about granting or rejecting sanction to prosecute police officers against whom case was made out in the state CID investigations.

Accordingly, the Parner court has decided the B-summary report of CID, public prosecutor Satish Borulkar told the court today and sought eight weeks time to decide on the sanction, but the court granted time till November 20.

Khwaja's mother Asiya Begum has moved the court seeking compensation of Rs five lakh for his alleged custodial death and prosecution of then Ghatkopar crime branch police officers, allegedly involved in the case. DGP P S Pasricha has already forwarded investigation report of the state CID into the matter to the home department for grant of sanction.

As far as police version of the story goes, on January 7, 2003, Khwaja ran away, taking advantage of an accident, near Parner, involving a police vehicle in which he was being taken to Aurangabad for investigation. Whereas Khwaja's family has alleged that he was killed while in crime branch's custody and has demanded compensation of Rs five lakh.

This version of Khwaja's family was also supported by a statement of a co-accused, Dr Abdul Mateen and the high court had directed, in 2005 to the state CID to register a case against 14 concerned police officials, treating Dr Mateen's statement as a FIR.

UNI