MUMBAI, 8 December 2007 — After a much dilly-dallying, the Maharashtra government finally submitted a letter to the Bombay High Court on Thursday sanctioning the prosecution of police officers involved in the alleged custodial death of Khwaja Yunus, a 27-year-old engineer and an alleged accused in the Ghatkopar bomb blast in Mumbai in 2002. Censured by the High Court, the government was forced to act.

Asiya Begum, the mother of the deceased, had moved court seeking a compensation of Indian Rupees 500,000 for his alleged death in custody, after the High Court on April 7 had directed the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to treat the statement of co-accused, Dr. Abdul Matin Abdul Basit, as a First Information Report (FIR). The police story was that Yunus had fled from custody, and had been missing ever since.

In a rewind to the case, the police claimed that Yunus had “disappeared” when a police vehicle carrying him to Ahmednagar on Jan. 7, 2003, met with an accident. According to the police, the incident took place near Parner in Ahmednagar district. However, Yunus’ family suspected that he was killed while in custody. Fourteen police officials have been indicted in the death of Yunus.

On Thursday, when the petition came up for hearing, assistant public prosecutor V. Kondedeshmukh informed a division bench comprising Justices R.M.S. Khandparkar and Amjad Sayyad that the State Home Department had sanctioned the prosecution on Wednesday, and submitted a letter written by the Joint Secretary, PT Goud.

The government acted swiftly after the HC issued a warning to the government on Nov. 21, asking it to place a plan of action before the court regarding its future course of action in the case.

In his letter to the HC, Goud stated “The state government, after considering the proposal of state CID, evidence on record and the recommendation of the director general of police, has issued sanction order on Dec. 5, as required under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code and that the CID had been told to initiate further necessary action.”

However, it was not clear as to which police officers out of the 14 indicted would be prosecuted. The court then directed the state to furnish relevant details on Monday. In an earlier hearing, the court had directed that an FIR be lodged against the police personnel for murder.