KARACHI, Sept 8: Police have arrested a constable in connection with the death of a judicial magistrate, who was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her house in Bahadurabad on Saturday.

The police produced police constable Sajid before a court on Thursday to obtain his physical remand. “We have got his physical remand and began investigation,” a senior police officer said.

The judicial magistrate, Shaista Hamid, 32, was found hanging in her house. She had hired a portion of the house on rent on Aug 15. Earlier, she used to live in her parents’ house in Karimabad.

Sajid, posted in the Anti-Violent Crime Cell and claiming to be her husband, came to see her on the day of the incident, police said. Having received no response from the house, he came there after an hour again and when he did not receive any response, he went to the police and informed the family of Ms Hamid. Hasan, brother of Shaista Hamid, accompanied the police, who broke open the door and found her hanging, the police added.

Hasan said: “We do not know if Shaista had married.” However, he alleged that Sajid had been blackmailing her for quite some time. This was the reason she was depressed, he added.

He said that the family had got a case registered and police were carrying out investigation. “We are satisfied with the police investigation so far.”

The TPO of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Aleem Jafri, said Sajid had produced a Nikahnama, according to which he married Shaista some six months back. “We have registered the case and handed it over to the investigation wing.”

SSP of Investigation Niaz Khoso said police would verify the Nikahnama and interrogate Sajid as he had been given in police custody by the court. The family claimed that Sajid had created such circumstances which forced Ms Hamid to take the extreme step, and the police would look into this aspect, he added.