A case of suicide turned into a homicide

Islamabad : How people abuse the law to obliterate life, career and future by implicating an individual in a sham felony?

A young lady, Ms. Kainat Tariq, 23-year-old, allegedly committed suicide on November 23, 2020, at around 5:30 p.m. by consuming poisonous tablets, commonly used to preserve grains from insects, while she was in her office in Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Sector H-8/2.

The Industrial Area Police have registered a case on the complaint of Mohammad Tariq, father of deceased, Ms. Kainat Tariq, who in his written application to the Islamabad Police alleged that his daughter didn’t commit suicide but Khalid bin Majeed, the Secretary-General of PRCS killed her through poisoning. After registration of the first information report (FIR) based on the charges levelled by the father of the deceased, the Industrial Area Police have arrested Khalid bin Majeed on the accusation of murder and has been investigating the case for the last seven days.

According to the information gathered by this scribe from different sources in the case, it was learned that on the fateful day Ms. Kainat, who was employed in PRCS as ‘Assistant in Resource Mobilisation Department’ contacted the Secretary-General, Khalid bin Majeed twice while he was in his office in a different block, about 300 meters apart but on the same premises.

The Father of Ms. Kainat alleged in the complaint, that made the basis of the FIR, that Ms. Kainat was receiving a monthly salary of Rs65,000 but Khalid bin Majeed used to deduct Rs25,000 from her salary for his keep every month. However, the sources in PRC confirmed that Ms. Kainat Tariq was employed as ‘Assistant’ since April 2020 on a monthly salary of Rs35,000 per month and her salary was transferred to her bank account directly every month.

The father of Ms. Kainat also alleged that Khalid bin Majeed had married Kainat secretly. However, when asked, Khalid bin Majeed categorically denied this allegation. Further investigation in the case revealed that the first call she made to Khalid bin Majeed was at around 2:30 pm, pertaining to an office matter while the second call she made at around 5:37 pm, which was a one minute call, in which she informed him that she has eaten poison and was feeling very bad and was in pain.

Khalid bin Majeed and another colleague rushed to her office where they found her in painful condition and immediately rushed her in office ambulance to Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi. All these call records and physical movement is recorded on the CCTV cameras of PRC and the Industrial Area Police have already taken the record into their custody.

According to the sources Ms. Kainat in her dying the statement told the attending paramedic that she herself bought the poisonous tablets from a shop in Tramri in Islamabad and confessed that she consumed the poisonous tablet of her own free will and under no pressure.

In light of the statement of the deceased the Investigation Officer of Industrial Area Police Station cross-checked the statement and the shop owner in Tramri also confirmed that the lady came to his shop alone and bought the poison on the pretext of putting that in wheat grain to protect it from insects.

An investigating officer of the case, when approached by this correspondent, said that so far there is no incriminating evidence found against Khalid bin Majeed and added that he has been detained only on the basis of the application submitted by the father of the deceased who has levelled murder charges against him.

The member of the Investigation Team conceded that all allegations levelled by Ms. Kainat’s father in his application are proving unsubstantive.

Meanwhile, when Khalid bin Majeed was approached in the prison cell in Industrial Police Station said that he is being wrongly maligned in the case and expressed apprehension that he has become a victim of office politics.

“Recently I was elected ‘Co-Chair of the ‘Global Committee on COVID Vaccination and Resource Mobilisation’ of which 192 countries of the world are members. This was a huge honour for Pakistan but now I feel that some people could not swallow me being nominated for this prestigious position,” he added.

A little more digging in the history of Ms. Kainat also revealed that she had been through traumatic times back in her early age. Her parents got divorced and later got married of their own choice. She was brought up by her grandparents and for some time by her uncle.

She left home somewhere back in 2016 and took refuge in Darul Aman in Lahore where she submitted an affidavit, narrating the reason behind abandoning her uncle’s home and seeking shelter in Darul Aman. “My uncle used to coerce me for wrongdoings,” she told in the affidavit.

SP (Industrial Area Zone) Zubair Shaikh when contacted by this correspondent to get the police version, said, “The allegation levelled by the complainant in the FIR that Khalid Bin Majeed took her to the UK for a pleasure trip, so far proved false and baseless.” He said that the people engaged in the investigation of the case, could not get any document relating to their visit to the UK including her passport. The close circle of the deceased claimed when contacted that Kainat had not applied for a passport, the SP said. “The police got no evidence of their wedlock evidence, however, their relations, neither confirmed nor denied during the investigations,” the SP concluded.