Court sends torturer of child maid on judicial remand

Child protection court hands over victim to Child Protection Bureau

RAWALPINDI: A Child Protection Court has given custody of a child maid, who was victim of torture by her employers, to Rawalpindi Child Protection Bureau on Tuesday.

Similarly, a local court in Murree rejecting bail plea of the arrested employer, Umair Tanveer, a cloth trader from Faisalabad, sent him on judicial remand to Rawalpindi Central Jail. It also recommended transfer of the case to Special Court of Child Protection in Rawalpindi.

The Murree police were still on the look for Tanveer’s wife, Zainab, who the child maid, Muskan Maria, said used to beat her.

Meanwhile, Murree police have been ordered by the court to present Muskan for a detailed medical checkup at Benazir Bhutto Hospital on Wednesday.

The case of torture on child maid surfaced in precincts of Murree police station on Saturday evening when a vacationing couple had abandoned their child maid after badly torturing her.

According to police, Tanveer and Zainab, were vacationing in Murree for a week. They had brought along their child maid with them.

On Saturday evening, the child maid Child Protection Bureau (CPB) District Officer (DO) Ali Abid Naqvi said he received a call on helpline late on Saturday evening about torture on Muskan.

CPB team took custody of the victim, whose arms and legs were covered with bruises.

In her preliminary statement, the victim said that she was working as a maid at Tanveer’s house for the past 10 months. She added that during entire period, Zainab beat her with punches, kicks and ladle over petty issues and mistakes.

Muskan said that her employers abandoned her on Saturday night after badly beating her.

At this, the CPB carried out medical tests of the victim from Tehsil Headquarters (THQ) hospital Muree and registered a case against both suspects. DO told The Express Tribune that victim would be taken to Benazir Bhutto General Hospital (BBGH) for detailed medical examination on Wednesday (today).

However, the suspects could not be arrested at earliest owing to apathy of the police. Later, according to sources the in-charge of Murree police picket came to action after intervention of CPB Lahore and arrested Tanveer however in the meantime, Zainab went underground to evade the arrest.

A court, allocated for CPB cases, handed over victim in CPB’s custody while the suspect was presented in a local court in Murree which sent him on a judicial remand. The suspect could not be moved to a jail due to evening closing hours and was still under police custody.

Murree police made raids after tracing call data of Zainab however it remained unable to find her.

In this regard, SHO Murree Inspector Hafeez Khan, saidd that many of Zainab’s relatives were living in Murree while they were conducting raids for her arrest and assured that she would be arrested soon.

Absence of storage

Rawalpindi police were left perplexed over security of video data recovered from the suspect accused of filming objectionable videos of students while raping them.

The absence of any such laboratory or space where such digital evidences could be stored has eventually raised questions on videos’ proliferation.

Keeping the gadget as case property in police store (maalkhana) raised fears of videos and images being leaked on internet and social media.

As an alternative measure, it has been recommended giving suspect’s mobile access only to the Investigation Officer (IO), who only could use the phone at any stage during investigation.

A police officer, requesting anonymity, told The Express Tribune, that the case had become a very sensitive issue. He said that Rawalpindi police had no such facility where the sensitive data could be secured. He added that circulation of data would not only distort police’s image but it would also pose a great threat to lives of all victims.

Keeping all circumstances under consideration, he said that the district command officer had suggested to keep mobile only under supervision of IO for prevention of data leakage.

The official revealed that none of officials in investigation teams was ready to take responsibility to keep mobile phone with them.

Even the police, he added, had not been able to determine so far whether the suspect made videos viral or not. He said that however, the evidences in form of videos would assist in bringing the suspect to justice.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2019.