LAHORE: A woman on Wednesday secured pre-arrest bail in a case pertaining to death of a domestic worker, while police awaited the postmortem report of the deceased for further investigation.

The suspect, Ms Fauzia, was booked on charges of torturing to death a 16-year-old boy, Akhtar Ali, who worked at her house as domestic help.

The suspect, through her counsel, moved the court for pre-arrest bail that was granted with a direction to deposit Rs50,000 as surety bond.

The court adjourned the hearing till July 20, seeking complete record of the case.

Akbari Gate police registered a murder case against Ms Fauzia, who is daughter of PML-N MPA Ms Shah Jehan, on the complaint of victim’s father Muhammad Aslam.

The complainant said that his son and daughter had been working at the MPA’s house for the last four years. He said the suspect used to beat his children even over minor mistakes and some four days ago badly tortured his son over delay in some chore.

He said his son suffered critical injuries which led to his death at the MPA’s house.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has taken notice of the incident and sought a report from Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains.

He ordered action against those involved in the boy’s killing without any discrimination and directed the authorities to provide best available health facilities to the sister of the deceased.

The police, after conducting the postmortem examination, handed over the body to father of the deceased, who took it to his native Makhanwala village in Okara district for burial.

The police also allowed victim’s sister Atiya to go with her father after carrying out her medical examination.

City Division Superintendent of Police (SP) Investigation Syed Karrar Husain said they were waiting for a detailed postmortem report to know the exact cause of the death.

He said the suspect got a pre-arrest bail from the court and they would include her in the investigation.

He said they also conducted medical examination of Atiya and were awaiting its report. He, however, said though marks of injuries were found on the girl’ body, those were not fresh.

As the medical examination officer was yet to finalise the autopsy report, the sources said the boy’s body had over 200 torture marks.

Child Welfare and Protection Bureau (CW&PB) chairperson Ms Saba Sadiq told Dawn that the bureau would also get registered a case against the MPA for hiring a juvenile as domestic worker.

She said that she visited the family of the deceased boy in Okara and assured them of financial, medical and legal help in the case.

Notice: Opposition Leader in Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed on Wednesday submitted a call attention notice to the Punjab Assembly against the recovery of mutilated body of servant from PML-N MPA’s residence.

In the call attention notice, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been asked to tell the house whether MPA Shahjahan has tortured her 15-year-old servant to death.

Stating that the servant’s sister was also tortured, he asked what action had been taken to hold her accountable.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2017