RAWALPINDI: A housemaid died after falling from the rooftop of a triple-storey apartment in Chaklala where she worked.

Police suspect that the woman had committed suicide.

Sana Bibi, 24, fell from the rooftop of the apartment and got stuck in the iron grill erected on the top of the compound wall, police and rescue services said.

But Mohammad Arif, the husband of the woman, late on Friday evening lodged a complaint with the police stating that his wife was working in the house of Mohammad Hanif at Willayat Colony and was seven months pregnant.

He said she needed consultation from the doctor and had asked her employer for payment of her salary in advance.

He said his wife and her sister visited her employer’s house on Friday and went inside, leaving her sister outside.

He said when her wife did not return, he reached Willayat Colony and found her trapped in the iron grill.

He suspected that his wife might have been taunted by the women inmates of the apartment for demanding advance salary and might have pushed her down the building.

When contacted, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Beenish Fatima told Dawn: “Police have no doubt after a preliminary investigation that the housemaid was not pushed by anybody; she did not have shoes when she fell down.”

She said it was all evident from a CCTV footage obtained from another house located opposite to the apartment.

The ASP said the maid had been working in three apartments. One of her employers, a couple residing on the third floor of the building, was at their workplace.

A lady health visitor living in the second apartment last talked to the maid. But the maid did not share anything important with her which could help the police ascertain whether she had any issue.

The ASP said the victim had no issue of salary or anything else with her employers. Her husband is a labourer and she was pregnant, she added.

Rescue 1122 emergency staff and police arrived at the scene and removed the woman after cutting the iron grill. But she had already died, the emergency services said.

The body was shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital for postmortem.

A police team led by SP Potohar Syed Ali and the ASP visited the scene and collected evidence.

The statement of the house owner where she worked was also recorded.

Separately, another housemaid sustained multiple cuts on her face and arm while running away from her employer’s house in the Airport police limits on Friday.

Aamna, 16, in her statement told the police that she wanted to leave the house of her employer and her brother had come to receive her.

When she came out of the house, she fell on the road and sustained the injuries.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2020