KARACHI: The body of a woman, in her 30s, found in a Korangi area a couple of days ago was handed to her relatives without completing medico-legal formalities that included a post-mortem examination, it emerged on Friday.

The recovery of the body has given rise to rumours spread on social media that a woman was allegedly raped inside a Korangi industrial unit. But instead of strongly denying the rumours, the police authorities without conducting a post-mortem examination declared that the woman in question died of drug overdose.

The move to hand over the body cast doubts over the whole attitude of police towards investigation of the death of the young woman, as without a proper autopsy, the exact cause of her death could not be known so no one knows whether she was murdered or died of some other cause.

Korangi-SSP Faisal Bashir Memon told Dawn that the body of the woman, later identified as Ayesha, was recovered from the ground within the remit of the Zaman Town police station on Aug 30.

Police claim she might have died of drug overdose

Police said that she might have died of an ‘overdose’ but certain elements had twisted the story by linking her with an employee of an industrial unit for some ulterior motives.

SSP Memon said that the police received information on Madadgar-15 and SHO concerned along with a police team reached the scene, called a Chippa ambulance to shift the body to a morgue. A few days later, she was identified by her family members who took the body for burial, he said.

Asked as to why the police did not fulfil legal formalities, the SSP said in case of the death of a drug addict, an autopsy was not conducted. “Such bodies are generally shifted to the Edhi or Chippa morgues where they kept them for a few days and then buried at their graveyard as unclaimed bodies.”

He said her family lived in Qayyumabad and they had told the police that she was a heroin addict.

Zaman Town SHO Humayun Ahmed Khan said that the woman had married to someone in Manzoor Colony from whom she had three children. After being separated from her first husband, she married to Adnan, who was a drug addict. He made her to use drugs and later on both of them started living in the stadium of the ground.

He said after three or four days of her death, her father and brothers arrived at the morgue and claimed the body.

The SHO hinted that she might have died because of drug overdose.

He said that the post-mortem examination of drugs addicts was not being conducted as they did not deem it as necessary. Besides, there were several witnesses who knew that she was a drug addict who has been living there.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2022