RAWALPINDI, Nov 21: A schoolboy committed suicide by hanging himself with a rope, tied to a ceiling fan. The incident occurred in the boy’s house, in the Race Course area.

The boy was under a lot of stress as he was implicated in a bogus case of robbery, after his parents failed to meet the police demand of Rs 50,000 for his safe release and was sent to jail on November 10, family members alleged.

Since the boy was released on bail from Central Jail Adiala on Friday, he had hardly eaten or slept and had been in distress, telling his parents that he had been tortured by everybody in the police station, during two days of detention.

Aman Shaukat, 16, a 9th grade student at a local school was picked up by the Race Course police on November 8, when a complaint was lodged against him regarding the purchase of an expensive mobile phone, through a computer advertisement.

When contacted Malik Shaukat Ali, the father of the suicide victim, who is settled in China, said: “A few days ago, my son Aman was picked up by some personnel of intelligence agency, supposedly linked with the mobile phone seller, and later was handed over to the Race Course police as he had purchased a mobile phone and paid half of the amount in advance, while the remaining was yet to be paid.”

He said as the police was involved in the issue, his son was picked up and taken to the Race Course police station.

“While his son was in police custody, the investigating officer asked us that Aman would be allowed to go home, provided a new cell phone was purchased for the complainant, and Rs50,000 be given to the police — for services rendered,” the father said, adding, “As I could not arrange the money for the IO, therefore he implicated my son in a fake robbery case as it was an issue of a cell phone purchase.”

The father of the victim who was weeping while talking to Dawn said that his son was a good student and had not been involved in any crime. He was punished for a crime which he had not committed.

He said he had gone to visit his relatives on Wednesday when he received a phone call from his younger son that Aman had committed suicide by hanging himself.

After the incident, the body was removed to a nearby hospital, where the doctors pronounced him dead.—Staff Reporter