PUNE, India, 23 May 2008 — In a new twist in the Khwaja Yunus murder case, the state Criminal Investigation Department has recommended to the Maharashtra government to transfer the case to the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Speaking to Arab News on Wednesday, state CID chief and Additional Director General of Police Shiv Prasad Singh Yadav said he recommended the transfer of the case to the CBI as his department was finding it difficult to take action against the 14 police officers accused in the case, with several hurdles created to block investigations and arrest of the suspects.
“The CBI is competent enough to thwart any political and bureaucratic pressure without any fear, which is not the case with the CID,” Yadav explained.
Yunus, a software engineer and a suspect in the 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast, was arrested in December 2002 by police who later claimed he escaped while being taken to Ahmednagar district on Jan. 6, 2003 after the vehicle he was traveling in with the police team overturned. But Yunus’ family moved the Bombay High Court claiming that he was murdered in police custody. The case was then transferred to the CID, which told the court that Yunus was indeed killed by police.
CID officials said the policemen involved in the case had not being cooperating and instead creating hurdles by filing flimsy complaints to the state director general of police and petitions in various courts against the investigating officers.
Yadav also said the suspects enjoyed the protection of senior bureaucrats and police officers who pressured investigating officers to go slow. In such circumstances, it was not possible for the CID to investigate the case, the officer said.
Shiv Sena Vandalism
In a separate development, hundreds of Shiv Sena workers vandalized a beer shop in Indapur town near Pune on Wednesday. They also daubed black paint on the shop’s signboard that bore the name of Shivaji, the 17th Century Maratha warrior.
Hours later, the working president of Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray, warned the state government against adopting double standard when it came to Shivaji. He said the government had named a toilet in Jejuri town near Pune and a beer shop after Shivaji, while it had opposed “good ideas like Shivaji potato cutlets.”
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Student Sena, the youth wing of the party, has said that it will continue its drive against non-Marathi signboards and has sought support from the people for their “Not Poona but Pune” campaign. Ajay Shinde, the city president of BSS, appealed to the people to make sure that all shops, hospitals, colleges and clubs in the city displayed to the name “Pune” instead of Poona.
