No headway in probe into suicide of ‘rape’ victim

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KASUR: No headway could be made so far in a case of alleged rape that forced the victim to take her own life as initially her family refused to lodge the case.

As per details, a 20-year-old student of a local private college allegedly hanged herself with the ceiling fan of her bedroom on Feb 14. A brother of the victim informed the police about the suicide, however, the victim’s father refused to take any legal action and gave a written statement.

On Feb 17, the brother of the victim lodged a complaint against his neighbour, who was also a class fellow of the victim, for raping and blackmailing her. The complainant alleged that the accused forcibly entered the house and raped her some 20 days ago and also made videos and pictures of the incident. The complainant claimed that the accused was blackmailing his sister for money and also extorted gold ornaments and cash from her.

The FIR claimed that due to the fear the girl committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan. The complainant also alleged that when informed, the father of the accused threatened the complainant with dire consequences.The family of the victim remained mum for the sake of honour, the complainant claimed.

Police arrested the accused, who later obtained a post-arrest bail from the court. On Friday, the Allahabad police took the accused to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) for a polygraph test.

SP Investigation Ziaul Haq, who was heading a team established by DPO Essa Khan, told Dawn that the initial medical report suggested that the victim was not raped on the day of incident. He further said that the accused and the victim, according to initial police investigation, were in a relationship for several years.

Answering a question, the SP said that the door was locked from the inside and there was no one in the room except the victim confirming that the incident was a suicide.

The SP further said that the police had not recovered any video so far from the two cell phones obtained from the suspect, however, the investigation officer had sent them to the PFSA for forensic analysis.

DPO Essa Khan said that the matter was being investigated from several angles. He said that the accused had deleted messages from his cell phones that amounted to erasing evidence and it further made the accused suspicious. He said the PFSA would recover the deleted data to help further the investigation.

Meanwhile, a police official requesting anonymity said that the victim’s family knew of the relationship between the victim and the accused. He claimed that they had contacted the other family to arrange their marriage, however, the accused’s family rejected the proposal, while the suspect also refused to marry her. This, he said, caused distress to the victim.

The official said while it was collecting evidence, it found that the cellphone of the victim was on, suspecting she committed suicide while talking to the accused. He said that later the accused made four calls, including two video calls, to the girl.

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2026

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