SANGHAR: Civil judge and judicial magistrate Sanghar-I Mohammad Farooque Abbasi on Saturday rejected investigation report on the death of a 14-year-old maid servant who was found dead in mysterious circumstances at the house of her employer on Tuesday evening.

Police had earlier registered an FIR against Ratan Kumar Lohano, who was an influential trader, under Section 302 PPC (premeditated murder) on a complaint lodged by the maid Radha Bheel’s father but the report attempted to prove the death to be a case of suicide even without waiting for the findings of the post-mortem report.

The medico-legal officer at the Sanghar Civil Hospital, too, had not yet submitted the autopsy report on the girl’s death even after a lapse of four days.

The report requested the court to allow police to record statements of two eyewitnesses under Section 164 CrPc in order to prove it was a suicide indeed but the judge rejected the report and refused to allow police to record the statements.

The judge directed Miandad Rajar, the investigation officer, to reinvestigate the case thoroughly and impartially.

The SHO was not very forthcoming when Dawn asked him about the reasons for his insistence on declaring the maid’s death as suicide even after having lodged the case under Section 302. He rudely replied it was police’s discretion to quote whatever sections of law they liked in an FIR.

Asked if he had evidence to substantiate the change in police’s stance, the SHO refused to answer and disconnected the cell phone call.

The girl’s mother Sony Bheel said that Ratan Kumar’s family had tortured her daughter to death and demanded police should interrogate Ratan’s wife.

She said that Ratan brought her daughter’s body to the hospital and then called the family, advising them to come to the hospital to take care of Radha who, he claimed at that time, was suffering from fever and cough. She said that her family had been offered Rs200,000 to remain silent.

Meanwhile, activists of civil society and political parties held demonstrations in the city for two days demanding justice for the poor domestic worker.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2017