LAHORE: A female student of a leading government university in the city died under mysterious circumstances at a private hospital in Nawab Town area.

A resident of Gujrat, 18-year-old (M) was brought to the hospital on Defence Road by a young man who escaped from the facility due to the alleged negligence of the police shortly after she was declared ‘received dead’.

Initial police inquiries suggested that she died of multiple complications after she underwent ‘an unsafe abortion’ at a private clinic.

The incident was reported on Sunday noon while the police arrested the suspect on Monday.

A senior doctor told Dawn that the girl was brought unconscious to the hospital’s emergency by an unknown young man.

On inquiring by the duty doctors, he said, the man introduced himself as her close relative.

He said at that time some police officials were already present in the same ward to investigate another case of a girl who was brought by her father probably in an attempted suicide matter.

As the man noticed the police’s presence, he left the emergency ward saying he was going to pick his cell phone from his car to inform his parents about the death of [his relative] girl.

He said one of the policemen also left the ward to accompany the suspect to his car as they smelled some suspicion.

The senior medic said the young man later dodged the policeman and fled the hospital in his car.

The police later obtained a CCTV footage to trace the registration number of the car for the arrest of the man and seized body of the girl.

To a question, he said, when she was brought to the hospital, the duty staff found a branula on her arm that showed she had previously been treated somewhere.

She was also wearing a ‘male dress’ at that time that drew the attention of the hospital’s staff and the police officials present there.

A police official said the girl was pregnant and the police were investigating to ascertain either she was poisoned.

He said it seemed the girl had an alleged affair with the young man because she had brought Rs120,000 from her parents from Gujrat pretending that she was to deposit university fee.

The official said the amount was later used to pay abortion charges at some private clinic.

He said on finding her condition deteriorating, the suspect took her to some private health facility to save her life.

Later, he shifted her to the private teaching hospital where she was reportedly ‘received dead’.

The police had already lodged a criminal case against the fleeing suspect under murder charges.

Police have informed the girl’s family and shifted the body for autopsy.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2021