HYDERABAD: Jamshoro police have obtained call data record (CDR) of mobile phone numbers of Sindh University student Naila Rind whose body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room in Marvi hostel on Sunday, according to police sources.

The sources told Dawn on Wednesday that police had noted ‘frequent communication’ from her numbers to some contacts which required forensic examination in order to retrieve the data of messages on the phone and those that might have been deleted. “There are over 3,000 messages that need to be read as they are written in roman Sindhi or Urdu,” said an official.

He said the ill-fated student’s conversation with some contacts appeared to be quite frequent. The messages to and from her numbers which had been lost or deleted could be obtained after forensic examination and they could help in filling the gaps in the mysterious death, he said, adding that multiple numbers were said to be in the student’s use. Jamshoro SSP Tariq Wilayat talked

to hostel provost Aneela Soomro and wardens Mahjabeen and Nusrat Talpur twice on Tuesday and Wednesday and visited Marvi hostel along with Kotri DSP Khalid Iqbal and SHO Tahir Mughal. They spoke to seven persons in total.

“We have spoken to them so that we have an initial account of their statements which will be helpful in investigation,” said Jamshoro SHO Tahir Mughal, adding that since no FIR had been lodged under Section 161 of CrPC statements of prosecution witnesses could not be recorded.

Meanwhile, the five-member committee formed by acting vice chancellor of Sindh University to probe the student’s death summoned in-charges of Allama I.I. Kazi central library, Sindhology library, chairman of the department of Sindhi Anwar Figar, Sindh University Teachers Associ­ation (Suta) secretary Arfana Mallah, hostel provost Aneela Soomro and wardens Mahjabeen and Nusrat Talpur.

Acting police surgeon of Liaquat University Hospital, Hyderabad, Dr Waheed Piracha disclosed that according to external examination report of medico-legal officer Dr Samina Rajput, there were no marks of violence on her body.

MLO Dr Samina Rajput had submitted her findings of external examination prepared after post-mortem of Naila’s body in LUH city branch on Sunday night.

“Except for marks from hanging on the neck there were no other signs of violence,” he said, adding that viscera had already been sent for chemical examination.

Mr Piracha said that since it had become a high-profile case chemical examination had become all the more necessary for determining the cause of death. It would be premature to say anything about the death till chemical examiner gave his final opinion, he said.

LUH’s medico-legal section sends viscera to chemical examiner in Karachi, which comes under the Sindh health department and usually takes 15 days to give its opinion on chemical examination.

Jamshoro police have not yet completed preliminary proceedings of the case under Section 174 of CrPC, always considered necessary in suicide cases since no one from the student’s family has so far approached police for such legal formalities.

Student’s family rejects reports

Heirs of the deceased have brushed aside reports that Naila was interested in someone while her family was planning to marry her to someone else. “She was entirely focused on her education,” said Naila’s elder brother Nisar Rind while talking to Dawn over phone from Qambar-Shahdadkot.

He criticised a Sindh University Teachers Association official who had made allegations about her personal life. He asked the Suta official to clarify the statement as it was a slur on the family’s honour.

“She was planning to do her MPhil and appear in competitive examination of the Sindh Public Service Commission and then serve as SU lecturer. She was thinking of marrying in near future,” he said.

He added: “We are an enlightened and educated family. I myself believe in women’s empowerment. She never expressed her desire to marry anyone of her own free will, nor the family was considering any proposal for her marriage,” he said.

Mr Rind did not rule out registration of FIR if satisfactory replies were not received in the wake of ongoing police investigations.

“We are contemplating the option of FIR but we are also thinking who is to be named in the FIR. Her belongings and phone are with police so they should come up with some palatable reasons for suicide,” he said.

He was critical of the fact that neither SU administration nor police bothered to wait for the deceased’s family before taking the decision to carry out post-mortem. “We plan to visit Hyderabad and Jamshoro on Thursday and we will be visiting her room where her body was found,” he disclosed and said the family would seek her belongings back from police.

A group of lawyers from Hyderabad and Jamshoro led by Sajjad Ahmed Chandio also visited the bereaved family members.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2017