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Moradabad cleric’s death: Wife hands over suicide note after a month; cops puzzled
A suicide note purportedly written by a Muslim cleric found dead in Moradabad has puzzled police after initial murder probe. Family claims it's authentic.
After investigating into the suspicious death of a 47-year-old Muslim cleric whose bullet riddled body was found in a dilapidated building behind a mosque in Moradabad on June 11, a suicide note that is purportedly written by the deceased surfaced on Monday. After probing the alleged murder for over the month, this new development has further puzzled the Moradabad police, said police officials on Wednesday.
The initial investigation hinted towards murder as the deceased, Mohammed Akram, sustained bullet wound in chest while a firearm was found lying near the body. The police registered an FIR under IPC section 302 for murder and have been investigating the matter since then but failed to find any breakthrough in the case.
Moradabad superintendent of police (SP) Satpal Antil informed the media persons that the wife of the deceased turned up before investigators with a suicide note written in Urdu language. He said the family members claimed that the suicide note contains the handwriting of the cleric.
The SP said the note has been sent for forensic examination and opinion has been sought from handwriting experts whether the note is written by the deceased or not. “We will further decide over the course of investigation after getting report from forensic experts,” he added.
“Although the new theory of suicide has come up, initial investigation and circumstances hinted towards the murder. So, we are still not ruling out the murder theory,” said another police official privy to the investigation, and added, “There is the possibility that this could be ploy to mislead police.”
He further added that the investigators translated the content written in Urdu and the reason mentioned in it doesn’t seems to be a strong one for taking the extreme step by the cleric. He said the cleric wanted to have a second marriage and he ended his life as his family was opposing it. He said the deceased is survived by his wife Aamna, four daughters and two sons. He said his wife had gone to his maternal place in Rampur when the incident happened on June 11.
Earlier, Moradabad additional SP city Akhilesh Bhadauria had said that a local villager Mohd Jabbar, who is father of village Pradhan Shan Mohd, had told police that the cleric was sleeping on the second floor of the mosque building when he received a call from unknown caller at around 4am. He went down when he was overpowered by a group of people and dragged inside the dilapidated building behind the mosque.
