The father of a child maid allegedly tortured by an additional district and sessions judge on Tuesday said he 'forgave' the suspect and his wife.
The judge, Raja Khurram Ali Khan, and his wife were facing an inquiry for their alleged involvement in keeping a juvenile housemaid in 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.
Explore: IHC launches probe into alleged torture of child maid by judge
Appearing in court, the father of the child, said he forgave the judge and his wife, and had "no objections" to the court granting bail to the suspects. He claimed that he had investigated the matter on his own and found the case to be a false one.
Khan and his wife were booked after the 10-year-old recorded her statement before the police in the presence of Assistant Commissioner Potohar Nisha Ishtiaq. The judge's wife was granted bail at Rs30,000.
The case came to light last week after photos of the child following the alleged torture began circulating on social media.
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 a First Information Report, 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.
