Forensic evidence shows Murree school teacher committed suicide

ISLAMABAD: Contrary to the media frenzy over the alleged “mob-burning” of a schoolteacher in Murree for refusing a marriage proposal, forensic evidence has proved that the teacher committed suicide after an unfortunate break-up with the son of the main accused, Master Shaukat.

Police arrested Muhammad Haroon after it held him indirectly responsible for the death of Maria Sadaqat and recommended legal action against him under Section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deals with punishment for Qatl-Bis-Sabab. Moreover, accused Master Shaukat (father of Haroon), Riffat Mehmood and Mian Arshad have been declared innocent.

According to final investigation report of the police, a copy of which is available with The News, the mobile data record showed around 6,248 calls and text messages between the deceased Maria Sadaqat and the accused Haroon. The postmortem and forensic reports showed no sign of torture on Maria’s body or any evidence of rape. Polygraphic test and fingerprints tests also revealed that the accused Master Shaukat, Riffat Mehmood and Mian Arshad were not involved in the crime. CCTV footage also revealed that the accused were miles away near the GPO Murree at the time of the occurrence.

The police investigation revealed that Maria started teaching at Master Shaukat’s school in Dewal around 17 kilometres from Murree city in 2014. Shaukat’s son Haroon was working at the school as the administrator. The two developed an affair in 2014 despite the fact that Haroon was already engaged. Later, Haroon got married in August 2014 but he continued his relations with Maria even after the marriage and birth of his daughter. Their parents became aware of their affair in 2015 upon which Master Shaukat barred Haroon from school and in December 2015 Maria also left the job to join another school nearby. However, telephonic communication continued between the two continued till May 29, 2016.

After the affair became public, Haroon bought a phone for Maria and gave her a SIM card issued in his name for communication. According to call data record obtained by the police, between May 1, 2016 to May 30, 2016, the two communicated on phone 6,248 times.

The report said Maria’s father Sadaqat and Haroon’s father Shaukat knew each other well and they had started a joint business five years ago which could not flourish. On the evening of May 29, Master Shaukat came to Sadaqat’s auto workshop to demand his share back and the two exchanged hot words. Upon his return, Master Shaukat informed his son and wife that Sadaqat had abused him badly. Learning about the incident, Haroon called Maria in front of his family and told her that he will never contact her again after that incident.

The call record shows Maria sent several text messages to Haroon after that call but Haroon did not respond. The report also included record of text messages sent by Maria on 29-30 May before her suicide. In one of the messages, Maria told Haroon that he would be responsible if she commited suicide.

According to the police report, Haroon knew about Maria’s intentions but did not try to convince her to change her mind. He also failed to inform the police about the threat.Upon the family’s pressure, Maria was supposed to get married to a man in Bhara Kahu on June 4, 2016 but that did not deter Haroon from continuously misguiding Maria.

Despite being married, Haroon played with the emotions of an innocent girl that led to the death of the girl. Haroon and Maria promised to marry each other on several occasions. Police have recommended action against Haroon under Section 322.

“The crime of deceased Maria was not instinctive. Haroon played a major role in leading Maria to this extreme step. In these circumstances, Haroon is practically responsible for the death of Maria, which is a crime under Section 322,” the report said.

According to the police report, doctors treating Maria also testified that Maria’s statement on death bed was issued on the insistence of his father Sadaqat and other family members.“Instead of paying attention to Maria’s treatment, the family was fully focused on Maria’s statement. They were forcing her to name names. They repeated names in front of Maria until she gave those names in her statement,” Lady Doctor Ruqqaya Rukhsar, who treated Maria at the Rural Health Centre Paghwari, told the police team during the probe.

“The video footage of Maria’s last statement on death bed also shows voices of her family member asking her to name the intended accused,” the report said.

Talking to The News, a doctor who treated the victim Maria at PIMS said that hand, face and feet of Maria were totally free of burns, which created suspicions about the incident. “If someone is burned by a mob, there must be signs of resistance on the body and hands and the face could not remain as clean as they were in the case of Maria.”

The police report said the petroleum compound used in Maria’s burning was brought by Sadaqat from his auto-workshop. The product was used to ignite wood for daily cooking. The report said no one from Maria’s family brought any evidence of “her mob-burning” to the police. On the other hand, Haroon voluntarily appeared before the police and recorded his statement. His arrest was withheld by the police for the time being.

The police report said Maria’s house is located at a difficult terrain, which is impossible to cover by the elderly people like Master Shaukat and others. “Even the police team found it difficult to use that difficult route to access Maria’s house.”

The report said it was likely that Maria’s family mentioned that path in their statement to misguide the police as the other easier route was thickly populated and the witnesses would have denied the story at the beginning of the investigation.

Maria was brought to the PIMS with 85 percent burns after the incident on 30th May, 2016. On her death bed, she accused Master Shaukat and others of burning her with kerosene oil for refusing to marry Shaukat’s son.

The Murree police had registered the case and arrested the accused including Shaukat. Later, on the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, a high-level police team from Lahore was assigned the task to investigate the matter. The four-member team of senior officers led by DIG Abubakar Khuda Bakhsh conducted the probe.

- Originally published in The News