ISLAMABAD – The police investigating the alleged suicide of Laiba Ejaz, a gold medallist in Islamabad, have obtained bank records of payments made to a suspect accused of exploiting her ambition to study abroad, according to police sources.
The investigation team has also sent a mobile phone recovered from the suspect for forensic examination to gather further evidence in the case.
Police sources said Laiba had met the suspect, identified as Nauman, during a job interview. He allegedly offered to help her secure admission to a foreign university and promised to facilitate her travel to the United States on a student visa.
The police said that Laiba paid substantial amounts to the suspect on several occasions in the hope of pursuing higher education abroad. As the promised arrangements failed to materialise, her parents had the documents examined and discovered that they were allegedly fake.
The police further alleged that when the family demanded a refund, the suspect used female accomplices to deceive them. He allegedly sent messages through an associate or impersonated a woman himself to mislead the family.
The investigators said Nauman had been living in a rented room separately from his family.
Father alleges Rs9.3 million fraud
In his statement to the police, Laiba’s father said his daughter had met Nauman in Islamabad’s Blue Area, where he allegedly introduced himself as a senior official.
The suspect reportedly promised to arrange a US student visa for Laiba and fixed the total amount at Rs9.3 million, according to the father’s statement.
He alleged that Rs2.1 million was paid to the suspect in cash in G-10, while Rs2.9 million was transferred from his daughter’s bank account to Nauman.
The father further claimed that the suspect provided fake receipts purportedly showing the transfer of $20,000 into an account to meet bank statement requirements.
He also named a woman, identified as Aiza, as an alleged accomplice, claiming that she contacted Laiba and demanded money.
According to the father, the suspect eventually stopped answering the family’s phone calls, leaving his daughter under severe mental distress for five to six days.
The police have recorded the father’s statement and reopened a sealed first information report (FIR) to advance the investigation. The case was registered on the father’s complaint under Sections 322 and 34, according to the information provided by the police.
Islamabad’s Islamic University Student Laiba commits Suicide after ‘US Visa Scam’