Gurugram: Retired Punjab DGP Mohammad Mustafa, and his wife and former state minister Razia Sultana, have been booked on murder charges after their son was found dead under mysterious circumstances, weeks after claiming in a video that his family was conspiring to kill him.
Aqil Akhtar Mustafa (35), a lawyer practising at the Punjab and Haryana High Court, was found dead at his family home in Panchkula on 16 October.
While the family claimed he died of a drug overdose, online videos have surfaced where Aqil is purportedly seen accusing his father of having an affair with his wife.
A 1985-batch IPS officer, Mohammad Mustafa retired as DGP (Punjab State Human Rights Commission) in February 2021. Aqil’s mother Razia Sultana is a three-time MLA from Malerkotla in Punjab and was a cabinet minister two times in former Congress governments in the state.
Apart from the parents, Aqil’s wife and sister have been named as accused in the FIR too.
Panchkula Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Shristi Gupta told ThePrint that a special investigation team (SIT) headed by an ACP-rank officer will investigate “all aspects” of the case, including Aqil’s video and family’s statements.
The DCP said that no foul play was suspected when Aqil’s death was reported. “A post-mortem examination was conducted, and the body was handed over to the family for last rites.”
The FIR was registered after Shamshuddin Chaudhary, a resident of the Mustafa family’s hometown Malerkotla, filed a complaint.
“In view of the complaint and contents of social media posts, an FIR under sections 103(1) (punishment for murder) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of BNS was registered at MDC police station in Panchkula on October 20,” the DCP said.
She added, “The investigation shall be conducted with an open mind and without any prejudice, ensuring that no guilty person is spared and no innocent person suffers. We remain committed to upholding transparency and justice in this matter.”
Speaking to media persons, the former DGP denied the allegations, adding that his son’s death was being politicised. Aqil, Mustafa said, had been suffering from substance abuse and psychotic disorder for years, and would turn violent.
ThePrint reached former DGP Mustafa via messages for a comment. The report will be updated if and when he responds.
‘Clear foul play’
According to the complainant, there was “simmering discontent” between Aqil and his family.
“On August 27, Aqil Akhtar publicly posted a video on social media wherein he made very serious allegations against his father and his own wife. In that video, he stated that he had discovered illicit relations between his father and his wife, and further mentioned that his entire family, including his mother and sister, were conspiring to kill him or implicate him in a false case,” Shamshuddin said.
News of Aqil’s sudden death “confirmed his apprehensions”, the complaint reads, adding that it is “clearly a case of foul play”.
In the 16-minute and 11-second video by Aqil, the complainant alleges, Aqil spoke about discovering his father and wife’s affair in 2018, the year after he got married.
The lawyer accused his family of detaining him, filing false cases against him and forcibly admitting him to a rehabilitation centre despite him being “completely clean”.
Aqil purportedly said that his mother Razia Sultana and sister discussed “making some arrangements” for him and leaving a “suicide note” in his diary in case of his death. Police are yet to recover a note.
‘Video being misused’
Aqil had posted the video on social media, but had also deleted it hours later, Mustafa said Wednesday. “Some people downloaded it, and they are now misusing it,” the former DGP said, adding that he has filed a complaint with police against those circulating Aqil’s clip.
On Aqil’s condition, Mustafa said that he would become violent after consuming drugs. “Once, my daughter-in-law narrowly escaped death. I handed him over to police myself. But, by the afternoon, his mother, wife and sister broke down in tears. As a father, my heart melted, and I withdrew the complaint. In 2010, he repeated the same thing,” he said.
Losing his son, he added, has “crushed him with unbearable grief”. “There’s no pain greater than that. I lost my parents early in life, but losing my only son is the deepest sorrow of all. The entire Punjab Police knows that my son went astray in 2007. For 18 years, we struggled with him—sometimes he was in a de-addiction centre, sometimes outside, and sometimes in police custody… as a father, I kept trying to bring him back from all this.”
The former DGP further said that Shamshuddin, the complainant who has alleged foul play in Aqil’s death, was not the family’s neighbour from their hometown. “My house is not even located in Malerkotla constituency. He (Shamshuddin) had once approached me for help when he was facing a bank fraud case worth crores of rupees. Other than that, I have no connection with him. This man was a PA (personal assistant) to a sitting MLA of Malerkotla for two-and-a-half years. He was involved in corruption and was expelled. Later, he found shelter under another big leader,” Mustafa said.
About the family
Former DGP Mustafa was considered close to former Punjab chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh, but the two had a falling out after the state government overlooked his DGP candidature. After retirement, Mustafa is believed to have become closer to Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Razia Sultana entered politics in early 2000s and was elected as Congress MLA from Malerkotla in 2002, 2007 and 2017.
She was handed cabinet positions two times—in Amarinder’s government from 2017 to 2021, and later under Charanjit Singh Channi till 2022. Sultana was defeated by Aam Aadmi Party’s Mohammad Zamil Ur Rehman in the 2022 assembly election.
This is an updated version of the report.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
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