By TCN Staff Reporter,
Hyderabad: Admitting a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the murder case of 11-year-old Sheikh Mustafauddin, the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad has directed the Union of India to become a party to the matter.
Bench of Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice Sanjay Kumar on Monday also directed Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad to submit a detailed report regarding the stage and progress of investigation in the murder case.
Sheikh Mustafauddin (file photo)
Mustafa, a madrasa student, was a resident of Siddiqnagar inside Mehdipatnam army garrison. He was found with severe burn injuries outside the gate of the garrison. In his dying declaration, Mustafa had told the magistrate that two men in army uniform had set him ablaze. The boy had succumbed to his burn injuries at the Apollo DRDO hospital on October 9.
This murder case created sensation after allegations of sexual assault and sodomy were raised against the army personnel, whose involvement was getting investigated by the police. Later, the postmortem report by AP forensic laboratory confirmed that Mustafa had an anal tear, which suggested an attempted sodomy.
There was a twist in the case when an army jawan allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver inside the same army garrison on November 3. He was one among the many personnel reportedly questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the murder case.
The SIT formed to probe the murder case soon got defunct as the SIT chief Shahnawaz Qasim was transferred out of Hyderabad within a week of taking up the investigation.
A local advocate Gulam Rabbani filed the PIL (295/2014) demanding CBI inquiry in the murder case. In his PIL, advocate Rabbani stated that the deceased boy in his dying statement clearly stated that two army men has set him ablaze, but unfortunately local police except for registering FIR, didn’t make any breakthrough in the investigation.
The High Court observed that the case was widely circulated in all the newspapers and the image of army is under scanner. The matter is posted for hearing next week.