IHC launches probe into alleged torture of child maid by judge

ISLAMABAD: After the news related to the alleged torture on a child maid by an additional district and sessions judge remained in the social media for a couple of days, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) launched an inquiry on Friday.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Raja Khurram Ali Khan is facing the inquiry for his alleged involvement in keeping a juvenile housemaid in a wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom and threatening her with dire consequences.

Mr Khan and his wife were booked after 10-year-old Tayyaba recorded her statement before the police in the presence of Assistant Commissioner Potohar Nisha Ishtiaq.

IHC Chief Justice Mohammad Anwar Khan Kasi took notice of the incident and directed Registrar Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan to complete the inquiry by Saturday. The registrar summoned the judge, the SHO Industrial Area along with the investigation officer and others on Friday.

Sources in the high court said the judge recorded his statement before the registrar and tried to clarify his position. He is likely to appear before the registrar on Saturday as well.

The police took the girl into custody after recovering her from the house of the judge. Initially, the girl told the police that she fell from the stairs and received an injury to her right eye. About the injury to her hand, she said it was burnt after tea fell on it.

In the FIR, however, she stated that she had been living at the judge’s house for nearly two years. She claimed that she was often beaten up in the house. Most recently, she alleged ‘Mano Baji’ shoved her hands onto a burning stove and then beat her after a broom went missing.

She said the owners of the house would usually lock her up in a storeroom at night besides starving and beating her.

The medico-legal officer of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) in his report stated: “There is swelling and blackening of right upper and lower eyelid … swelling and burn marks superficial in nature on the torso … abrasion on the right side of face and over left ear.”

The report also noted blunt and burn injuries and opined that the nature of wounds constituted a case under section 337 –A (i) and 337 – F (i) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

In September 2013, on the complaint of the then chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) the IHC suspended ADSJ Khan for allegedly extending favour to an individual in a land dispute and ordered an inquiry against him.

The CDA had auctioned a plot in 1977 and allotted it to Mr Akram after he deposited 10pc of the cost to the civic agency. Prior to the appointment as the ADSJ on September 13, 2012, Mr Khan, according to the CDA complaint, remained the private counsel for Mr Akram in a number of cases.

In 2013, the CDA sealed the plot after Mr Akram failed to pay the dues. According to the complaint, Mr Akram filed an application with ADSJ Khan and obtained a stay order in his favour and broke the seal of the plot and reoccupied it.

When the CDA tried to evict Mr Akram, he filed another application with ADSJ Khan or the registration of an FIR against the then CDA chairman, Nadeem Hassan Asif, the director enforcement Liaquat Abbasi and others.

ADSJ Khan accepted the application and ordered the registration of the FIR against the CDA officials.

In the complaint, the CDA chief pointed out that in the past Mr Akram was a client of the ADSJ hence he could not hear his application. Mr Khan remained suspended for over eight months until he was exonerated in the inquiry.

Source: Dawn