Police in Islamabad have arrested a man suspected of defrauding a gold medalist student of the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) over fake foreign university admission documents. The body of the victim student was reportedly found hanging on the roadside in Islamabad’s G-10 sector, as she was distressed after discovering that the documents were fraudulent, according to police report.
Taking notice, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described the incident as extremely tragic, and directed the Inspector General of the Islamabad Police and the Chief Commissioner to immediately arrest the suspect accused of defrauding the student. He said the suspect would be given exemplary punishment in accordance with the law. State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry said the Ministry of Interior Affairs directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take immediate action.
FIA Director Shehzad Nadeem Bukhari said a case would be registered after the inquiry. He said the suspect allegedly defrauded the victim student of Rs7.2 million on the pretext of securing her admission to a university abroad and also took Rs500,000 from her brother on the promise of arranging a job. According to the FIA director, the suspect would pose as an employee of the Supreme Court or an officer of a government institution.
He said that the victim had planned to surprise her family on October 12 with news of her admission to the Harvard University – a private Ivy League research institution founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts of the United States. However, the victim student discovered that the registration certificate was fake. The official also confirmed that the student had sent her final message to her maternal uncle.
It said that the suspect had rented a room in Islamabad and was living in ‘hiding’. The suspect had previously worked in the Anti-Corruption Establishment in Quetta but was suspended. He had also worked for a company in Islamabad. According to the police, the victim student was distressed after discovering that the documents provided by the agent for admission were fraudulent. The family said that she wanted to pursue further studies abroad after completing her BS degree from the International Islamic University with a gold medal.
The family said an immigration consultant had demanded seven million rupees to secure her admission to a US university. The father – the milkman who lived with his family in a rented flat – sold his plot and paid Rs 2.1 million in cash to the agent. The family said that the mother’s jewelry was also deposited with a bank to arrange the remaining amount. The victim discovered that the admission documents were fake. “Do not tell my father about the fraud committed against me. He will die,” she sent a final message to her maternal uncle.
When a student takes their life after an academic or personal failure, experts emphasize that suicide is rarely caused by a single event, but rather by failure acting as a powerful catalyst on pre-existing vulnerabilities. Leading experts, psychologists, and public health researchers view failure as a profound psychological shock that intersects with societal pressure, family dynamics, and institutional gaps. In young people, scientists have long known suicide can be contagious – means knowing someone who has attempted suicide makes teens and young adults more likely to develop suicidal thoughts and behaviors themselves.
