DADU: A woman was found shot dead in her house located in Ward-5 of Sita Road town in this district on Saturday. She was identified as Asmat Rajput, an MBBS fourth-year student of the Peoples University of Medical and Health Sciences for Women, Nawabshah.

It was learnt that she was allegedly being blackmailed by some people who had prepared a fake Nikahnama and been extorting her.

Area SHO Gul Baig Khatian along with a team of his subordinates visited the house of Khalid Jameel Rajput to collect his daughter’s body and take it to the Sita Road hospital for a post-mortem examination.

According to Dadu SSP Aijaz Ahmed Shaikh, Ms Rajput was allegedly being blackmailed by a man, Shaman Solangi, along with his son, Faiz Solangi, claiming that she had secretly contracted a marriage with him. The police officer said Solangi had got prepared a fake Nikahnama to extort the woman.

The SSP believed that Ms Rajput committed suicide by shooting herself. He said a ‘suicide note’ purportedly written by her for her father was found during a search of the house by police. He said the woman had shared everything she had been undergoing for long with her father a couple of days before taking the extreme action.

The police officer said that an FIR against Shaman Solangi, Faiz Solangi and three other persons, “the fake Nikah registrar and two witnesses”, was registered at the Sita Road police station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Khalid Rajput.

The complainant quoting his daughter stated she had been paid several amounts of money to the blackmailers and only about a month back, she had deposited another amount of Rs90,000 in Shaman’s account. He said he had already lodged an FIR against the suspects [before her suicide] at the area police station.

Police on Sunday said they had taken into custody the woman’s laptop, mobile phone and diary, besides the purported suicide note, for a forensic examination.

A three-member team headed by Mehar DSP Mohammad Younus Rodhnani has been constituted to investigate the matter and submit a report to Dadu SSP Aijaz Ahmed Shaikh within the next seven days.

The DSP said that preliminary investigation on the basis of information collected from hospital sources and district authorities made himself to believe that it was a clear case of suicide.

Police have so far failed to arrest the nominated suspects. They told local reporters on Sunday evening that raids were being conducted at their possible hideouts.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2022