An affidavit filed last week in the Bombay High Court by Asiya Begum, mother of Khwaja Yunus, the 27-year-old software engineer murdered in police custody in 2003, reveals the dubious role of the Maharashtra  government in handling Yunus’s custodial death case, in which ex-cop Sachin Waze is the main accused. Senior advocate Dhiraj U Mirajkar, appointed as Special PP in the case, was summarily removed in April 2018. The trial has since been at a  standstill as Asiya Begum approached the high court asking that Mirajkar, chosen by her, be reinstated. 

Last month, the Advocate General told the court that Mirajkar was unwilling to return to the case due to various reasons, including health issues. But Mirajkar has denied any health issues in an email to Asiya Begum’s lawyer Chetan Malee. In the email, which has been reproduced in an  additional affidavit filed by Asiya Begum, Mirajkar points out that since his removal, he has been on three forest treks and also gone scuba diving. Yunus, an accused in the December 2002 Ghatkopar bomb blast case in which two people were killed, was said to have “disappeared’’ on January 7, 2003, while being taken to Aurangabad under police escort. However, a court-directed CID inquiry found that he had been killed in police custody.