Gurugram: The Haryana government has written to the Centre recommending a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the death of former Punjab Police chief Mohammad Mustafa’s son.
Aqil Akhtar Mustafa, 35, was found dead by his family members at his residence in Panchkula, Haryana on the night of 16 October.
A senior officer in the Haryana government confirmed to The Print on Thursday evening that a letter has been sent to the Centre with a request that the case be handed to the CBI because of its inter-state ramifications.
The state government, however, is yet to get any response from the Centre.
Haryana Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vikram Nehra has already begun investigations in the case.
“We don’t have any information about the government’s move. Our team has already visited the scene of crime as well as a drug de-addiction centre at Patiala, where Aqil was admitted in the past. Now, we plan to visit ex-DGP Mustafa’s village in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district for recording statements of certain persons,” Nehra told The Print.
Though Mustafa’s family had attributed the death to a drug overdose, the local police registered an FIR based on the complaint filed by Shamshuddin Chaudhary, a resident of Malerkotla from where Razia Sultana belongs to.
The FIR was registered late on Monday at the Mansa Devi Complex Police Station under Sections 103(1) (murder) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Mustafa and his wife Razia Sultana have been booked on murder charges. Razia was a minister in the previous Congress government in Punjab.
A video purportedly recorded by Aqil on 27 August surfaced, accusing his father, a 1985 IPS officer, of having an illicit affair with his wife and expressing fear of being killed by his own family.
Mustafa, who retired as Director General (Punjab State Human Rights Commission) in 2021, has claimed that his son was mentally unwell and was a drug addict since 2007.
The retired police officer told the media that his son recorded this video in August but deleted it within hours. Some people, according to him, had downloaded the video and were trying to misuse it for political benefits.
The complainant is close to the AAP MLA who won Malerkotla from his three-time MLA wife in 2022, according to Mustafa.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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