ISLAMABAD: A case has been registered against the wife of Civil Judge Asim Hafeez for allegedly severely torturing a 14-year-old girl who worked as a domestic worker in their house, the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police said on Tuesday.
The sad case of the continuous brutal killing of a 14-year-old girl came to light when the victim was shifted to a hospital in Lahore with serious injuries.
A case was registered by the girl’s father Manga Khan at police station Hamak under Section 506 (committing criminal threats) and Section 342 (wrongfully imprisoning a person) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
According to the text of the First Information Report (FIR), seven months ago, the complainant sent her 14-year-old daughter to work as a domestic worker on a monthly salary of Rs 10,000 through an acquaintance named Chaudhry Mukhtar.
The girl’s parents came to know about the torture at the judge’s house on Monday (July 23) when they visited him.
It may be noted that the victim’s parents say that they did not meet her during these seven months but sometimes spoke to her on phone.
“When we [complainant, his wife and his brother] entered the gate, we heard our daughter’s cry. Hearing this, I got worried so we went to the room and found our daughter injured […],” the complainant said in the FIR.
She alleged that her daughter was severely tortured by the judge’s wife and the child had marks of torture all over her body.
Upon examining her condition, the parents found multiple wounds all over the girl’s body, including severe head injuries, which were “infested with maggots”.
The main injuries described by the complainant include swelling on the lips and eyes, broken teeth, broken ribs and strangulation marks on the neck.
According to the FIR, the complainant has accused Soumya of torturing and illegally detaining her daughter since she started working at the judge’s house and demanded action in the matter.
On the other hand, Islamabad Police says that action is being taken to arrest the accused.
ترجمان اسلام آباد کیپیٹل پولیس
— Islamabad Police (@ICT_Police) July 24, 2023
گھریلو ملازمہ پر تشدد کا معاملہ۔
بچی کے والد کی درخواست موصول ہونے پر مقدمہ درج کرلیا گیا ہے۔
ملزمہ کی گرفتاری کے لئے تحرک کیا جارہا ہے۔
مقدمہ کی تفتیش میرٹ پر کی جائے گی
تمام ترقانونی تقاضے پورے کئے جائیں گے۔
قانون سب کے لئے برابر ہے
He said that the case will be investigated on merit and all requirements of justice will be fulfilled.
A civil judge dismissed the charges.
Meanwhile, when Civil Judge Hafeez was asked about the alleged torture, he rejected the allegations and said that the injuries on the girl’s body were the result of eating soil from a planter kept in her house.
“The girl was a domestic servant in our house. She had eaten soil from the planters a month ago, which damaged her skin,” the judge said while talking to JEE News.
She said she had a doctor in Gujranwala diagnose and treat the “skin condition”, but the girl picked and scratched her wounds after her skin healed.
On her head injury, Hafeez claimed that when they told the girl that they would drop the child back at her home, she hit her head against the wall.
He also said that he did not know the condition of the injuries on the girl’s head as she was covering her head with a scarf.
Hafeez added that the girl used to tell us that her mother would beat her if she went back, so she did not want to go home but we left her there.
The judge claimed that “I am against physical violence and incidents of violence have never happened before me.”
Hafeez said that Soumya had told him that the girl did not work, so they left her with her parents at their house in Sargodha.
“My wife along with the driver dropped the girl from her house in Sargodha,” Hafeez claimed, adding that the mother started beating the child in front of his wife as she dropped her off.
On the charge of stealing jewellery, the judge countered that his wife had complained to him about not receiving the jewelery but he had not accused the child of theft.
He said he was going to Lahore, where the girl was undergoing treatment, and wanted her to recover quickly.
