Crime: Child worker ‘commits suicide’

GUJRANWALA: A 12-year-old domestic helper was found dead on Wednesday at his employer’s house, the Civil Lines police said.

The employer, a doctor at the Civil Hospital, told the police that the boy had committed suicide. The child’s parents have refused to file a complaint. Police said some people at the hospital noticed the body when they saw the doctor, Dr Arshad Virk, take the body to the morgue on a stretcher. He told his colleagues that the boy was his domestic helper and had committed suicide by strangling himself with a rope. He said the child had died on his way to the hospital. One of his colleagues informed the police, who sent the body for a post-mortem examination.

Investigation Officer Akhter Haideri said that the doctor was questioned, but was let go after the child’s father refused to file a complaint. Deputy Superintendent of Police Zawar Husain said the boy had bruises around his neck and there were some injuries on some parts of the body. He said the police would take action if the post-mortem report showed that the child had been murdered.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2013.