HYDERABAD: Quashing claims of discord with husband Syed Ateeq Ahmed, who died on March 16 in Florida, the USA, and dismissing allegations of any foul play levelled against her family on social media, Sheikh Nazia on Sunday said that her husband killed himself because of financial problems. The family in Hyderabad was informed about the death only on April 28, raising suspicion.
“My husband has in fact committed suicide. Ateeq was under immense stress and depression regarding his financial, legal status in USA and job issues. The morning (March 16) he committed this act, he also lost his driving job with Lyft rideshare,” said Shaik Nazia, Ateeq’s wife, to the New Indian Express.
“Ateeq had killed himself within hours of losing his job,” a screenshot of a statement of the Jacksonville detective Kenneth J Guthrie, the officer who investigated Ateeq’s death, read. “Research into his finances revealed he had several credit cards maxed out.” On March 16 Ateeq killed himself in Jacksonville, Florida. However, the controversy erupted when his family got to know about the incident on April 28 —more than a month after the incident happened. In the following days, numerous theories were put forward on social media regarding the delay. Family members asked the reason behind the delay and it was indicated that Nazia and their marriage were a reason behind Ateeq’s suicide.
Explaining the reason behind the delay in informing Ateeq’s parents, Sheikh Shoeb, Nazia’s brother, in a conversation with Express, said, “We got the news of his death only on March 22 after we made a police enquiry. On top of that, Ateeq had severed all ties with his family due to differences between them. I did not have anyone’s contact number from Ateeq’s family. In fact, I had to do all the formalities and documentation required for his body to be released from the medical examiner’s office. All this took time.”
Nazia, who was in Canada when Ateeq died, said, “After the differences cropped up, Ateeq made me delete all the contact details of his family. As I never predicted such an extreme incident to happen, I was not in a mental state to even correspond with concerned authorities.”