Suicide or homicide?: Death of medical student raises questions

Forensic report, samples to confirm cause of death.

RAWALPINDI:

A second-year student at Army Medical College was found dead at his home on Thursday amid mysterious circumstances, the police said.

Lubna Naheed, a grade-19 civil servant, told the RA Bazaar police that her son, Abdullah Masood, 20, went to his bedroom at 11pm on Wednesday. However, when she tried to wake him up for Fajr prayers the next morning, his room was locked from inside.

Later, she managed to open the door and found him lying unconscious on the floor with some medicine and a syringe lying nearby, she added.

He was taken to District Headquarters Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. Naheed said the injection might have caused the death of her son. “We have no enmity with anybody, nor has my son been murdered,” she told the police.

A friend of the victim, requesting anonymity, said that the deceased had been in distress for the past two days after faring poorly in his exams. “He had failed the exam twice… that may have disturbed him,” he added.

According to the doctor who carried out a postmortem on the body, Masood had intravenously taken Sosegon — a prescription narcotic pain killer — and also had the tell-tale swelling on one of his arms. “Sosegon injections are usually given to patients after surgery to control severe pain, but some people take it recreationally. An overdose can be fatal,” said the doctor.

Furthermore, the mother and an uncle of the deceased have recorded their statements with the police and further investigation is underway. Meanwhile, the brother of the deceased posted on the social networking site Facebook saying “Please stop posting statuses about my brother’s suicide, it was a drug reaction”.

Investigation officer Siddiq said that the postmortem report was sent to Lahore and the cause of death could be determined only after the chemical examiner’s report is received on Saturday.

Masood lived with his mother and two siblings in Army Headquarters Apartments. About a year-and-a-half back, his father, Lieutenant Colonel Nosherwan, died of cancer.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2013.