SAHIWAL: Yousafwala police have added money extortion charges to the FIR of a case registered against a (now sacked) police constable who was allegedly involved in the rape and blackmail of a female student of BS fourth year who committed suicide after the suspect threatened her to upload an objectionable video clip of her on social media.

As per police, Uroosa Talib, a resident of 58/5-L village was a BS-4th year student at a local private college. In 2019, she allegedly developed relations with a police constable, Dabir Hussain, who was posted at the city police station. Dabir promised to marry her.

The police said Uroosa’s father had died, while her mother knew about the relationship.

On the other hand, the mother claimed that her daughter was trapped by the constable into having relations with him. She said that Dabir made an objectionable video clip of Uroosa and instead of marrying her started blackmailing and demanding money from the family.

The constable threatened them that he would upload the video on social media if his demand was not met, she alleged, adding that her daughter became so upset that she attempted to commit suicide.

Uroosa’s mother, instead of being blackmailed, reported the matter to the police.

In year 2020, Yousafwala police registered an FIR (559/20) under sections 376 (rape) against Dabir.

A departmental inquiry was also launched against the constable that declared him guilty of “developing illicit relations with an unmarried girl”. As a result, Dabir was dismissed from police service.

Meanwhile, he secured bail in the rape case and again started blackmailing the girl and her family. This time, the girl’s family capitulated to the blackmail and started paying Dabir small amounts to avoid a scandal.

Dabir also kept pressurising Uroosa’s mother for withdrawing the rape case against him and demanded Rs200,000, giving the family a deadline of Aug 23, 2021.

Getting fed up with the situation, Uroosa committed suicide on August 22 by hanging herself from a ceiling fan.

Yousafwala Station House Officer (SHO) Nadeem Anwar told Dawn that police added charges of money extortion (section 384 and 506) in the earlier FIR, besides completing the suicide report under Section 174.

He said it was being probed if the victim committed suicide because of being blackmailed by the suspect.

He said Dabir was on bail and September 9 was the next date for the hearing.

The mother of the victim has appealed to Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and Punjab inspector general of police to ensure that a fair investigation should be conducted into the case so that the “culprit” could be brought to book.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2021