RAWALPINDI: The police made three more arrests on Monday in connection with the death of a 24-year-old woman who fell from the third storey of an apartment in Bahria Town on November 21.

They will also get DNA profiles of the suspects to identify the person who raped the woman before she died.

The CSS aspirant had fallen from the apartment where she was staying with Umair Makki, who is the prime suspect in the case. Mr Makki was injured when he fell trying to climb down a drain pipe.

He was treated for his injuries and was arrested on November 25 after he was discharged from the hospital. The couple had stayed at a four-star hotel in Islamabad for a couple of days before moving into the apartment.

The three suspects arrested have been identified as Izhar Ali Shah, Raja Mateen and Raja Naveed. All three men are said to be friends of both the dead woman and Umair Makki and are believed to have dined at the apartment with the couple on the night the woman died.

The investigating officer in the case said: “She either killed herself by jumping down or was thrown. In either case, the police are sure that Makki is guilty and responsible because he wanted to get rid of the woman.”

He said the police had taken all four suspects to the court of the area magistrate to seek their five-day remand. Umair Makki had already been on a four-day remand which ended on Monday.

Mr Makki could not produce any document before the police or the court which could ascertain that he was married to the woman, as he initially claimed.

The investigating officer also said that DNA samples from all four men will be collected and that samples from the woman’s body had already been sent to Lahore to be analysed.

The police will also review footage from the closed circuit television cameras and the visitors’ list from the hotel in Islamabad where Makki stayed with the woman before moving to the apartment in Bahria Town. They will also seek record from the housing society of when the cars of the three men drove in.

The police have obtained the cellphone records of both the victim and Makki which revealed they had become friends a few years ago.

All four suspects, the three men arrested on Monday and Umair Makki, are in the property business.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2015