KARACHI: The suspicions of foul play in the alleged suicide of a young woman at Seaview on Friday become stronger as the conclusion drawn by medico-legal officers after the autopsy and the act of deletion of the CCTV footage of the hospital by the prime suspect point in the same direction.

The woman, 23-year-old Sara Malik, had allegedly jumped into the sea at Seaview on Friday evening. After two days of search, rescuers fished out the body on Sunday morning.

The victim worked at a veterinary hospital in Defence Housing Authority owned by the prime suspect, Shan Saleem, in the case.

Earlier, the police had said she had jumped into the sea near Farhan Shaheed Park because she had been sexually harassed, victimised and assaulted by the owner of the hospital.

‘Fresh body’

Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed had told Dawn that they had reserved the cause of death after a post-mortem examination.

“All the relevant samples have been collected,” she said, adding that the cause of death would be determined once the reports were received.

The post-mortem examination conducted by senior medico-legal officer Dr Tasneem Malik showed that the “body is fresh in appearance”, according to the autopsy report seen by Dawn on Wednesday.

The alleged suicide by the young woman became suspicious after the conclusion of the ‘fresh body’ drawn by doctors contradicts the police findings.

The police claim that the body was recovered from the sea after two days on Sunday morning, which is stated to be a considerable time for decomposition of a body at sea.

A police officer told Dawn that this theory of the body’s ‘freshness’ had generated controversy about the cause of death of the woman.

However, the police were waiting for the report of a chemical examiner to rule the case as a suicide or murder.

One more suspect held

SSP-South Syed Asad Raza on Wednesday told Dawn that one more suspect, identified as Waseem, had been arrested. The held suspect is a business partner of the hospital owner.

Waseem had allegedly ‘deleted’ the CCTV footage of the hospital in which the victim was seen last time leaving the premises.

The SSP also added that the victim girl’s cell phone had also been recovered from the premises of a ‘foreign’ restaurant in ‘bad shape’.

He said the cell phone was allegedly destroyed by the suspects on whose information it was recovered for investigation.

However, the SSP admitted that during initial probe nothing concrete could be found out which could show whether the young woman committed suicide or was murdered.

The Sahil police registered a case under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) and Section 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the owner of the vet hospital in the DHA He was arrested during a raid on the facility on Saturday night.

Published in Dawn, January 12th, 2023