Haryana recommends CBI probe into death of ex-Punjab DGP’s son

The Haryana Police Monday booked Mustafa and his wife and former Punjab minister Razia Sultana, as well as their daughter and daughter-in-law, on the charges of murder and criminal conspiracy.

This came after the former DGP’s 35-year-old son, Aqil Akhtar, was found dead at his residence in Haryana’s Panchkula on October 16. He was taken to a government hospital which declared him brought dead. Initial reports suggested a suspected “overdose of medicines”.

Following an autopsy, Akhtar’s body was cremated at the family’s ancestral village of Harda Kheri in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur district.

Later, a video purportedly recorded by Akhtar surfaced online. In it, he purportedly levelled serious allegations against his father, mother, sister and wife, accusing them of harassment and conspiring against him, and claiming a threat to his life.

Citing the video, a resident of Punjab’s Malerkotla, Shamshuddin Chaudhary, filed a complaint with the Haryana Police, alleging that the death was not accidental but part of a conspiracy. Police in Panchkula subsequently registered the FIR.

In another purported video, which surfaced later, Akhtar said he had alleged “many things in the video posted earlier” due to “schizophrenia” and that he was “blessed with a good family”.

Mustafa, the former DGP, has denied the allegations against him and his family members. He has said his son, who was a drug addict since 2007, turned “psychotic” and developed severe mental illness.

On Thursday, he welcomed the Haryana government’s recommendation for a CBI probe. Mustafa said: “I welcome any inquiry by any agency — whether it is the Haryana Police or the Central Bureau of Investigation. I have nothing to worry about.”

He said: “The CBI is supposed to be more competent than state police, anywhere. It’s not that I doubt the state police’s competence or impartiality, but the CBI is better equipped to handle complicated cases like this.”

A senior Haryana Police officer said the need for a CBI investigation arose due to allegations involving high-profile individuals, including a former Punjab DGP and a former state minister. “Given the sensitivity of the case, no time was lost in recommending a CBI probe,” the officer said, referring to the state’s move coming just two days after the FIR was registered.

Meanwhile, a Haryana Police team inspected Akhtar’s Panchkula residence on Thursday.Mustafa had recently told The Indian Express: “He died after injecting buprenorphine in overdose as per the initial police probe. For 18 years since 2007, he was into drugs. We were getting him treated for addiction including at PGIMER Chandigarh but he would relapse. Once he had also set our house on fire. He harassed his mother and wife under the influence of drugs,” .“His medical treatment is a matter of record and we are ready for any probe. When I was with Punjab Police, I used all my resources to pull him out of drugs but he relapsed time and again. My son wasn’t a bad person but he had turned psychotic due to drugs. My daughter-in-law is a gem of a person who tolerated my son’s actions,” he had said.