PUNE, 23 June 2007 — The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which had earlier told the Bombay High Court that the alleged Ghatkoper bomb blast accused Khwaja Yunus was murdered by the cops, and was not missing as claimed by the police, has now diluted the case and exonerated 28 of the 42 cops involved in the case.
This is learned from the confidential report submitted to Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) P.S. Pasricha in the custodial death of Yunus. In the report, the CID, apparently under political pressure, has said that there was corroborative evidence against only 14 police officers.
It may be recalled that the division bench of Justices Ranjan Desai and Dilip Bhosale of Bombay High Court, hearing the application of Aasiya Begum, mother of Yunus, had asked DGP Pasricha last Wednesday to tell the court clearly within two weeks whether the charge-sheet against the concerned police officers of the crime branch will be filed before the court or not, so that the Court may take necessary action.
The CID, in its report exonerating 28 police officers, including encounter specialist Pradip Sharma, has said: “The direct or indirect involvement of the 28 officers had not been established during investigations nor was there any conclusive evidence against them apart from several anonymous letters received by them.”
Even the anonymous letters had not led the CID to gather any useful and purposeful information against the 28 policemen, the report has said.
The CID also stated in the confidential report, which is likely to be presented before the Bombay High Court, that the CID officials were unable to establish proof that the cell phones not registered in the names of the policemen were actually used by them as alleged in the anonymous letters received by the CID.
In a letter written on May 3 to the then CID Additional Director General of Police Jayant Umranikar, now commissioner of police, Pune, Pasricha had said that even if the CID has evidence against the remaining 14 officers, except for four, the evidence is unlikely to stand legal scrutiny.
Pasricha referred to the discussion he held with the CID officers investigating the Yunus case on April 25, 2007 in which he said he discussed about what exact evidence was available against the remaining 10 police officers and constables. Apart from Police Sub-Inspector Sachin Vaze and three constables, it was revealed that the CID had only collected records of cell phones that were used by the police personnel in question.
Senior police officers told Arab News that the case against the police officials in the Yunus case would not stand as there will not be sufficient evidence to establish the guilt. What further surprises the police officials is that Police Inspector Rajendra Joshi, who is also one of the police officers investigated in the case, is rewarded by being retained in the Pune Crime Branch, and despite his latest transfer, he had managed to get it canceled. Police sources in Pune alleged that Rajendra Joshi during his earlier posting in Wanworie Police Station, had harassed, arrested and tortured several Muslim community members, and having such an officer with a bad track record, is an insult to the Pune police force.
