Islamabad police have registered a case against the wife of a civil judge for allegedly torturing a teenage girl working as a maid at her home, it emerged on Tuesday.

In a tweet late on Monday night, Islamabad police said that a case had been registered on the complaint of the victim’s father.

“Efforts are being made to arrest the accused,” police said, adding that the case would be investigated on merit. “All legal requirements will be met. The law is equal for all,” police said.

The first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered at Islamabad’s Humak police station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Manga Khan.

The complaint was registered under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Khan said that he was a resident of Sargodha and had sent his teenage daughter, between 13 to 14 years of age, to work at the civil judge’s home in Islamabad for a monthly salary of Rs10,000.

He said that on July 23, him, his wife and a relative went to visit the child but when they entered the judge’s home, they heard her cries coming from a room.

“All three of us went to the room and saw that my daughter was injured and was sobbing. When I saw my daughter, there was a wound on the back of her head as well as other small wounds which had become infested with maggots,” Khan said.

He said that the child’s arms and legs were also injured and one of her teeth was also broken. He further said that his daughter’s eyes, her lips and her entire face was swollen. He said that there were also wounds on his daughter’s back and her ribs were broken while there were small wounds all over her body.

He said that there were also bruises around his daughter’s neck as if someone “used to strangle her”.

The complainant said that when they asked the girl who did this to her, she told them that it was the judge’s wife. He quoted his daughter as saying that the wife used to beat her with sticks and used to starve her and keep her confined in a room.

Khan said that his daughter had been subjected to severe torture and urged the police to take action.

Sargodha police register report

A day earlier, police officers told Dawn that the Sargodha police contacted the officers of the Islamabad police, from the police chief’s office to the relevant SHO, and provided them with all the documents, including the complaint and the medico-legal certificate requesting them to register the case.

The response of the police was “unprofessional and non-serious”.

After the issue was highlighted in the media, the Sargodha police again contacted the capital police to register the case. At this, the police asked for the presence of the complaint at the police station concerned even though they had received relevant documents from the Sargodha police, they added.

The Sargodha police registered a report after the girl was brought to DHQ Sargodha with injuries. According to the report, the injured girl was brought to hospital at 7:21am in poor condition. “She was working at a house of a judge where she was subjected to torture,” the report added.

According to hospital sources, there were wounds on the head, face, and body of the girl which were reportedly caused by a “blunt weapon” while there were some burn injuries on her body as well.

The mother of the girl alleged that the wife would beat her daughter whenever she asked for the salary or to see her parents. She alleged that her daughter was “thrashed mercilessly with a blunt as well as a sharp-edged weapon” and was also burned with a hot iron.

Talking to Dawn, Sargodha District Police Officer Mohammad Faisal said the girl hailed from Sargodha. She was hired by the judge through a contractor as a housemaid against a salary of Rs10,000 per month about six months ago, he added.

The DPO quoted the girl’s family as saying that her employer was not happy with her and asked the parents to take her back. Her family came to Islamabad in response to a call from the employer and took her to Sargodha, he added.

On her way back to their native town, the mother spotted injuries on her daughter’s body, SSP Faisal said, adding that her family took her to a local hospital in Sargodha where the hospital demanded a medico-legal certificate (MLC) for her treatment treating it as a case of torture.

In response, the Sargodha police issued an MLC for her treatment, he said, adding that according to the MLC, she had multiple injuries, including two fractures and lacerations. Her wounds were infected apparently due to a delay in treatment. She had bruises and swelling as well.

The doctors advised the family to take her to Lahore due to her head injuries, the DPO said, adding that the Sargodha police arranged a police ambulance to move her to Lahore.

The Lahore police were also approached to facilitate the girl and her family at the hospital, SSP Faisal said, adding that the Sargodha police also arranged the traveling of the family to Lahore in a passenger vehicle.

The Sargodha police also assisted the father of the girl, Manga Khan, to write a complaint for the registration of the case, he said, adding that all the relevant documents were sent to Islamabad police for further legal action.

A police officer of the capital police told Dawn that the complaint from the girl’s father was received by the capital police for the registration of the case against her employer at the Humak police station. Police sources said that a case could also registered against the judge for hiring an underage maid and concealing facts.