Suspects in minor maid’s murder case arrested

Police take action after pressure from social media after disturbing footage of aparent abuse surfaces

HYDRABAD:

The Khairpur police have belatedly arrested the man, believed to be responsible for the murder of a minor housemaid, along with his facilitators after a video showing physical torment on the deceased went viral on the social media.

Pir Syed Asad Shah Jilani, Dr Abdul Fatah from the government hospital and Ranipur police station SHO Ameer Chang have been rounded up for the murder, facilitation and the cover-up.

Reportedly, a court in Khairpur granted four-day physical remand of Jilani to the police while his wife, Syeda Hina Shah, secured interim bail from Sindh High Court (SHC) Sukkur bench on Thursday against a surety of Rs30,000.

The woman has been accused of subjecting the housemaids to physical punishment and torture in her Haveli.

Shabana Phurro, mother of 10 year-old slain girl Fatima, stated as complainant in the First Information Report (FIR) that her daughter was brutally beaten which led to her death.

The FIR was lodged after the woman retracted her earlier statement in which she termed it a natural death.

“I was informed over the phone that my daughter was unwell and had subsequently passed away,” Phurro recounted.

She mentioned that the Jilani family had selectively shown bits of CCTV footage to convey that the girl was unwell.

She said that one of the reasons behind her silence was her three other daughters who are still working in the same house as maids.

In the statement before the judicial magistrate, Jilani denied that the deceased was subjected to torture and claimed that she was sick.

He told the court that all the maids working at his residence have been willingly sent by their families for work.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2023.