Three remanded for harassing woman, inducing her suicide

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded three suspects in police custody in a case pertaining to blackmailing a woman who committed suicide.

Police presented the suspects before the District Central magistrate seeking their physical remand for two weeks for interrogation and arrest the remaining three suspects named in the FIR. Six suspects were booked for their alleged involvement in blackmailing and harassing a 41-year-old married woman who killed herself by hanging with her dupatta from a ceiling fan.

The investigation officer (IO) said that the suspects were arrested in connection with the victim’s death. He added that the woman in her last audio messages to a friend had named the suspects saying that they were harassing her.

The judge approved two-day physical remand of the suspects in police custody and directed the IO to produce them on the next date along with a progress report.

Initially, the family had told police that she had committed suicide due to unemployment of her husband; however, the case took a turn after police got hold of the deceased’s audio messages prior to her death.

“I am being harassed by the boys in the neighbourhood and my phone number was also leaked. People are calling and threatening me to meet,” she said in one of the audio messages. “Some boys scammed me and made my fake marriage video as well as compromised videos and later made it viral on the internet.

I cannot see my children being murdered.”The case has been registered under the sections 322 (Qatl-bis-sabab) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Shahrah-e-Noor Jehan police station on the complaint of the victim’s husband.