LAHORE: Police claimed on Monday to have investigated 38 employees of the Federal Lodges called Chamba House in a PML-N female worker’s death case while an investigator hinted at drug overuse to be the cause of her death.

Samia Chaudhry, 35, a resident of Islamabad, was found dead in a room of the lodges by a waiter on Nov 26. She was staying at the lodges with the reference of Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf, an MNA from Sahiwal, since Nov 22. However, the MNA had denied that she was staying there with his reference.

Racecourse police had registered a murder case against unidentified person(s) on the complaint of Samia’s husband Asif Mehmood on Sunday.

The postmortem report had suggested that there were no torture marks on the body but it was silent about the foam coming out of the mouth of Samia and blood from her nose.

Investigator says drug overuse may be a cause of death

DIG Operations Dr Haider Ashraf told the media the case was being investigated from all angles and they would examine all the evidence, including CCTV video footage and added that the relatives of the deceased had also been included in the investigation. He claimed that the investigation would be concluded within 24 hours.

When this reporter contacted another police officer investigating the case, he said there were no CCTV cameras installed in the lodges. He said the workers of the lodges were not allowed to visit any room without the guest’s call and they (workers) went to check Samia’s room when her family contacted them.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigation Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera said the employees were called for interrogation and they were not taken into custody. He said the initial investigation had revealed that Samia might have died on Nov 24 or 25 but the body was found on Nov 26 after her family failed to contact her. He said the postmortem report did not reveal the cause of death and they had sent the samples to forensic laboratory.

The SSP said the initial investigation had also suggested that Samia had died due to excessive use of drugs while adding they were also analysing her cell phone data to check who was in contact with her.

The forensic experts, who had gone to preserve the crime scene, said Chamba House did not have any security guards. They apprehended that Samia might have died of cardiac arrest while poisoning could also be the cause of her death.

Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the media the post-mortem report did not verify that Samia was murdered.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2016