Mumbai: In a new twist to the case of mysterious disappearance of Ghatkopar bomb blast accused Sayed Khwaja Yunus from police custody, a resident of Phaltan in Kasara district today (Apr 1, 2004) moved a special court saying he had met the accused in a cyber cafe in Pune.

Based on his version, the special court ordered State CID to conduct an inquiry and trace Khwaja Yunus.

Jayant Nale Patil, a resident of Phaltan, filed a petition saying he had met a person in February end in Dish Hub cyber cafe behind McDonalds at Deccan in Pune whose face and description tallied with that of Khwaja Yunus.

Patil said the person had given his name as Mohammed Sharif and told him that he was working as a software engineer with Wika Co in Jabelali, UAE.

Patil said he once met the same person in the cyber café on March 16 and this time he was threatened with dire consequences if he disclosed to anyone about their meeting.

After the court directed CID to conduct a probe into Patil's allegations, he was whisked away to CID office for questioning.

In another development, the CID opposed the plea of assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, arrested on the charge of disappearance of Khwaja Yunus and his suspected murder, for a laptop in jail to prepare for computer examinations.

The designated judge A P Bhangale asked Vaze to produce proof of examinations and ordered the jailor to consider his plea on being satisfied that he was to appear for the test.

Vaze was arrested by State CID early this month for alleged disappearance of the accused from police custody on January 7, 2003 and his murder.

According to crime branch sleuths, a police jeep carrying the accused to Ahmednagar for probe met with an accident and Khwaja Yunus took advantage of the mishap and escaped.

The POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) court had earlier observed that the State was bound to produce the accused dead or alive and that it was answerable for the alleged disappearance of Khwaja Yunus.

The same court had last year (2003) ordered compensation of Rs 5000 per month to the family of Khwaja Yunus unless he was produced dead or alive. The State filed an appeal in the High Court, which stayed the lower court's order.

Later, the father of the accused filed a petition in the High Court urging for production of Sayed Khwaja. He claimed that his son was killed in police custody.