Civil Judge Suspended

ISLAMABAD: An additional district and sessions judge, who has been booked on charges of alleged torture on a child housemaid, has been barred from adjudication as the initial police inquiry report submitted before the Supreme Court points out ‘violence and abuse’ meted out to the victim by the judge’s wife.


The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday made the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Raja Khurram Ali Khan, an officer on special duty (OSD) in line with an inquiry earlier conducted by registrar of the court on directions of the IHC Chief Justice Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi.


According to the notification, the IHC “chief justice and judges of this court have been pleased to withdraw the services of Raja Khurram Ali Khan” from the Civil District and Sessions Division-East, Islamabad and placed him in IHC as OSD.


The judge, Raja Khurram Ali Khan was facing inquiry after the 10-year-old victim accused him and his wife, Maheen Zafar, of keeping her in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in storeroom and threatening her of even worse. The registrar had conducted an inquiry and a confidential report was submitted to the top judge of the IHC.


Police inquiry


The police report, exclusively available with The Express Tribune, states that “there is evidence that the victim child was abused and tortured by the accused lady.”


The report added that “the victim was employed by Raja Khurram Ali Khan as housemaid at his residence.”


The report states that the ICT police carried out its sincere efforts and investigated the case minutely and recorded statements of all relevant persons. “During the course of investigation Section 328-A PPC has also been added and there is evidence that the victim child was abused and tortured by the accused lady.”


The investigation team has conducted a thorough, fair and transparent investigation covering all-important points from all aspects, the report read, adding that the ocular, circumstantial and relevant medical and forensic evidence has been collected and placed on record against the lady suspect allegedly involved in the crime.


On December 28, as per the police investigation, a lady Humera Haroon took photographs of the victim child in an injured condition in the house of the suspects on her mobile phone and accordingly forwarded the same, which later appeared on social media. Humera and the judge reside in the same area.


The investigators have taken possession of Humera’s mobile phone in which pictures of the victims were saved and it has been sent to experts for analysis on January 9.


The capital’s police are specifically looking answers of three questions –date and time when pictures were taken, whether the pictures are original or otherwise and whether any editing has been done with the pictures or otherwise.


In addition, the report states that it was also investigated that the victim’s wounds were self-inflicted or otherwise, “any evidence of sexual abuse” and determining the right age of the victim.


As per the doctors at the Pakistan Medical Institute of Sciences “no evidence was found indicating if the child was sexually abused” and the child’s age was between nine-and-a-half years to 10-and-a-half years.


The report further reveals that the child sustained burn and trauma injuries and infection on face and neck, both knees, right thigh, left toe, back, right and left arms, and right buttock.


“The child has marks of small and large multiple wounds of contact burn that are caused when any hot item comes into contact with the body,” a health expert revealed while requesting anonymity.


“Multiple new and old burn marks on various parts of body cannot be sustained at once and seem to be inflicted on her at different times. This does not seem to be a normal phenomenon,” the expert added.


During the formal interrogation, the police said, Zafar and Judge Khan have denied the allegations.


District bar


Islamabad district bar has said that police misled the Supreme Court in the juvenile housemaid torture case, while denying the police claims against a lawyer who had represented the victim’s family.


The court was informed on Wednesday that Raja Zahoorul Hassan, who had represented Tayyaba’s family when they pardoned the judge and his wife suspected to have subjected the child to torture, was a relative of Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan. The court was also informed that Hassan had kept the child and her family in a house in Burma Town in Islamabad as police looked for them. The court was also informed that during the family’s stay at that house, Hassan did not allow them to contact anybody.


Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) had also announced a full-day strike on Tuesday against ‘illegal’ detention of Hassan by the police.


IBA Secretary Zafar Khokhar said neither the two were relatives, nor the Burma Town house belonged to Hassan. “He [Hassan] was pressurised by the police to give a certain statement. We will disown him if the allegations against him are proven,” said Khokhar.


Hassan also denied the police claims. “They cannot prove the Burma Town house to me in a hundred years,” he said and added that he was an easy target for the police and the media among all those involved in the case.

Source:The Express Tribune