As the ‘suicide’ case of a young Karachi lady doctor, Dr Maha Ali, was not getting resolved days after the incident, the police in the megacity was again challenged with its investigation skills as a woman was alleged to have committed suicide while her family was insisting that she was murdered by her husband, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

Areeba’s husband Shamshad said she committed suicide. Her family, on the other hand, approached the police, accusing him of killing the wife with the help of his friend Saad.

Baloch Colony Police Station in Karachi has registered a case of murder and arrested Shamshad for allegedly murdering his wife Areeba with the connivance of his friend in Mahmoodabad area.

Husband Shamshad.

Shamshad aka Shami and his friend Saad have now been detained and an FIR has been lodged under section 302 on the complaint of Areeba’s mother. 

It is pertinent to note that the police initially declared Areeba’s death as a suicide case. However, now the mother of the deceased claimed in the FIR that her daughter was murdered by her in-laws.

Rabia’s mother said, “My daughter Areeba got remarried three and a half months ago. I was scared of her second marriage and I opposed it. Rabia's husband Shamshad alias Shami was not of a good character.”

“He told me on the phone that Areeba's health has deteriorated and then upon my constant insisting he then told me that Areeba is no more in this world,” the mother of the deceased claimed in the FIR.

She said when her family reached Shamshad's house, her daughter Areeba’s body was lying on the bed with torture marks on the neck and on other parts of the body. “I am sure that my daughter was strangled to death and my son-in-law Shamshad and his friend Saad were involved in the incident,” she claimed in the FIR against her son-in-law.

The police said they received a report about the death by suicide of the woman but when they reached the apartment the crime site said otherwise. The alleged killer had marks on his neck and could not give a satisfactory answer when asked about them, a police official said.

Besides, there was not enough space between the ceiling fan and the bed where the body was lying to make it possible for a person to end life by hanging.

The police have collected evidence from the crime scene and have sent it for forensic examination. The body has been shifted to a hospital for a post-mortem examination, the police official said, adding the reports would ascertain whether it was a suicide or murder.

According to the family, the couple had married by choice four months ago.