BOMBAY, 22 October 2006 — The Maharashtra State Director General of Police Dr. Pavender Singh Pasricha has ordered the immediate transfer of 10 officers out of Bombay for their involvement in the alleged murder of Khwaja Yunus, a software engineer from Aurangabad.
Yunus had been taken into custody in relation to the Ghatkhopar bomb blast case. Dr. Pasricha’s order comes following a court ruling ordering senior police officers to take action against unruly officials.
Those transferred to far-flung areas in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions include high-profile encounter specialists.
Inspector Pradeep Sharma was transferred to Amravati, Arun Borude to Buldhana, Rajendra Gore to Ratnagiri, Prakash Patil to Hingoli, Assistant Inspector Dinkar Mohite to Nagpur, Sub-Inspector K.L. Thorat to Nandurbar, Assistant Sub-Inspector Mangesh Mahajan to Nashik and Head Constable D. Johri to Nashik Rural. One more inspector, an assistant inspector and two constables were transferred to Hingoli district and earlier Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ambadas Pote was transferred to Nandurabar district. Some others were transferred to Nashik and Buldhana districts.
Sharma and Borude were from the Criminal Intelligence Unit, Ghatkophar branch. They had to their credit 150 successful police encounters between the late 1990s and early 2000. The Criminal Investigation Department had arrested eight policemen, while 30 other cops have obtained pre-arrest bail.
In an affidavit filed at the Bombay High Court on Oct. 16, Additional SP Kiran Gosavi of the state Criminal Investigation Department, who is investigating the case, alleged that the officers, all from the Crime Branch, were involved in the murder.
Gosavi also said that in order to extract a confession Yunus was tortured by Inspector Arun Borude, Inspector Rajendra Joshi, Inspector Praful Bhosle, API Vanmane, PSI Hemant Desai and PSI Khot and that a person by the name of Dr. Mateen was witness to the entire episode. Moreover, for 48 hours between Jan. 3 and 6, Yunus was not subjected to the mandatory daily medical examinations.
The mobile phone records of accused PSI Sachin Vaze and Inspector Rajendra Joshi on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7, 2003, were found to be corrupt which indicated that the evidence was destroyed, the CID official said.
