MUZAFFARABAD: A judicial magistrate in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Sudhnoti district on Monday remanded two suspects into police custody for a week following their arrest on charges of blackmailing and extorting money from a married woman, who ultimately took her own life.

According to an FIR filed at Baloch police station on Saturday, Arshad Mahmood, a resident of Kehala village currently working in Saudi Arabia, reported that he was informed by his brother-in-law on Nov 15 about his wife’s sudden hospitalisation due to a critical health issue. Hours later, he received another call from him about her death.

Mahmood returned home the following day for her burial.

While investigating the circumstances surrounding his wife’s sudden death, Mahmood said he discovered that two men, identified as Kamran Kifayat and Mubashar Hameed, residents of Topa Kehala and Upper Kehala, respectively, had developed illicit relations with his wife over the past two months.

According to the FIR, the accused recorded compromising footage of the woman during video calls and used it to blackmail her into giving them money and other valuables.

Mahmood alleged that his wife handed over more than Rs3 million to the suspects, including Rs976,000 from the sale of her jewellery.

Despite meeting their repeated demands, she continued to face blackmail and threats, ultimately leading her to consume poison in despair, he said, while urging strict legal action against both suspects and any accomplices.

SHO Waqar Azeem told Dawn that both suspects were apprehended the same night after police used local intelligence and technology to track their whereabouts.

Preliminary investigations revealed that Mubashar, a neighbour of Mahmood, had shared the woman’s contact details and other information with Kamran, asking him to trap her for fulfilling fiscal and carnal demands.

Kamran reportedly initiated contact with the victim and recorded compromising video calls, which he later used for extortion and sexual exploitation. On October 19, Kamran impersonated a third blackmailer, using an unknown SIM card and a local dialect to demand Rs 2 million, threatening to leak the footage if his demands were not met. Previously, he communicated with the woman in Urdu.

Under duress, the woman sold her jewellery and handed over Rs 976,000 to Kamran, who had hidden his face, at Kehala Chowk on October 20. Days later, Kamran, continuing to impersonate a third party, demanded an additional Rs 1.5 million, which the woman was unable to arrange.

Desperate and unable to fulfil the demands, the woman sought financial help from relatives under the pretext that her husband needed the money in Saudi Arabia. When her efforts failed, she resorted to suicide, according to the SHO. The SHO said they had recovered incriminating evidence, including the compromising material, from the suspects’ mobile phones.

Subsequently, the accused were charged under sections 322 (manslaughter), 384 (extortion), 292 (obscene material) and section 489-Y (related to harm to privacy of and reputation) of the Azad Penal Code as well as section 10 (3) of the Offence of Zina(Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979.

“More disclosures will come up during further investigation, on the basis of which we will definitely ensure justice for the victim and her family,” the SHO said.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2024