Police book judge’s wife for torture

Victim’s father says 14-year-old ‘between life and death’

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad police said on Tuesday a case had been registered against the wife of a civil judge over the alleged torture of a 14-year-old girl who worked as domestic help at her residence in Islamabad.

While no arrest had been made, the police did say in a tweet in the early hours of the day that all legal obligations would be met in the investigation of the case and that efforts were afoot to arrest the accused. “All legal requirements will be met. The law is equal for all,” said the tweet.

The first information report (FIR) was registered at the Humak police station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Manga Khan. It contained sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the complaint, who works as a daily wage labourer at the vegetable market in Sargodha, the girl had been working at the house of the judge in Islamabad for the last six months. She was paid Rs10,000 per month.

On July 23, he along with his wife and a relative went to visit the child. They found her badly injured and crying. She had a wound on the back of her head that had become infected and infested with maggots, the complaint said.

The victim’s father details the various injuries visible on the girl, including her swollen face, cut lip, broken tooth, strangulation marks on the neck, and injuries on the arms and legs.

The FIR further stated that when they asked the girl who tortured her, she said it was the wife of the judge. Quoting his daughter, Khan said that the woman would beat the girl with sticks, starve her and keep her locked in a room.

The girl had earlier undergone an examination at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Sargodha, with hospital sources confirming to The Express Tribune that the girl had broken bones and ribs, as well as various other signs of torture including burn marks.

In heart-wrenching images that circulated widely on social media, the girl could be seen howling in pain as a doctor tried to highlight the different parts of her body that had been subjected to torture.

The girl has since been shifted to Lahore, where she was said to be under intensive care at a local hospital. The father said she was ‘between life and death’ and that it was getting harder for him to get her the treatment she needed.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 26^th, 2023.