Activists demand CBI probe into Yakub Shaikh death

Dissatisfied with the use of word “drollery” to explain the motive behind murder of Yakub Shaikh in the chargesheet, ‘Justice for Yakub Shaikh Campaign’, a movement jointly started by organisations such as Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights, Jagrut Kamgar Manch and Bharat Jodo Andholan, has filed a writ petition on behalf of Shaikh’s widow seeking investigation in the death by an independent agency or by CID. They have also demanded a stay on further proceedings of the case in the sessions court till the petition is heard.

Confirming the news advocate Susan Abraham told The Asian Age, “Kalachowky police has deliberately suppressed the entire incident making it out to be a prank between two people, including the deceased. That means the person who was killed had willingly submitted himself to this horrendous crime and therefore it is noted as a prank. If it is a prank how can it be a murder ” asked Ms Abraham who is also part of the Justice for Yakub campaign.

According to her, “The offence is of murder so there has to be motive and murder weapon, if none of these is made out by the police then we have a straight forward case where a man will get a bail tomorrow and the case would fall flat for want of prosecution and proper investigation and there is a huge cover-up.”

The petition was filed after a newspaper report about filing of chargesheet on December 22, last year in the case mentioned “drollery” as motive behind the murder. The prosecution’s case is that on September 29, 2015 around 2.30 pm the deceased was cleaning a car and while he was bending over the vehicle, accused Santosh Arekar approached him from behind and inserted a pressure air pipe into his anus. As a result, air was pumped inside Shaikh’s body and he bloated up. He was rushed to hospital but was declared dead.

It has been alleged in the petition that the investigation is partial and tainted and the police did not take into consideration several important points, including the possibility of involvement of more than one person because it is not possible for any normal human being to withstand the pressure (of an air pump) and there should have been some movement by deceased to resist the act.

Another fact being pointed out was that the deceased’s underwear was found to be intact. According to the petitioners, the underwear ought to have been found in a torn condition due to the quantum of pressure and hence there’s a possibility of involvement of other persons who would have forced the pipe into Shaikh’s anus after removing his underwear.

Other questions include why no investigations were made into the fact that out of the three CCTV cameras that were present at the site where the incident occurred, two were not functioning and one was tilted and could not capture the incident.

The petition was filed in the high court and is likely to come up for hearing in due course.