The Khwaja Yunus custodial death case took a turn on Tuesday, when two men (names withheld) in their intervention application filed in the High Court alleged that the state CID had tried to force them into giving false evidence against suspended police officer Sachin Waze and others for killing Khwaja Yunus, an accused in Ghatkopar blast, 2002 in custody.

On March 8, Justices Ranjana Desai and Anoop Mohta had asked advocate Ayaz Khan — who had  approached the High Court on behalf of the two men — to file an intervention petition.

The two men in their affidavits stated that they were offered Rs5 lakh and jobs in the Gulf by a state CID officer ‘Jafferbhai’. The Mumbai-based duo have also said that their friend Wahid Ali took them to Pune early this month, where they met Jafferbhai, who asked them to tell the HC that they had witnessed Waze and Pradeep Sharma “killing an innocent man” (read Yunus).

They have further said that they also spoke to ‘Pasrichasaab’ over the phone, who asked them to co-operate with Jafferbhai.  However, they refused to give untrue accounts of events and approached a lawyer after returning to Mumbai.

Meanwhile, Waze had earlier told reporters that he had received an anonymous letter on March 7, stating that some CID officers were “manufacturing evidence against him”.

The case will now be heard on March 23.