ISLAMABAD: The capital police have submitted an incomplete challan in housemaid torture case in a trial court citing various reasons for the delay in the completion of investigations.

Sources in the police told Dawn that the statement of 13-year old housemaid Rizwana under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) is yet to be recorded in front of a magistrate as she is still under treatment in a hospital, the sources said.

Besides the housemaid, they said, the wife of the civil judge, who had employed the girl at her house, had appeared before the Special Joint Investigation Team (SJIT) that had been constituted on August 4 to probe the case, but the judge had not yet recorded his statement.

The sources said the incomplete challan was submitted in the District and Sessions Court through the district prosecutor.

According to them, the report of the forensic examination of the videos sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) by the SJIT is still awaited. The videos include the transportation of the housemaid by her employer, the judge’s wife, from her house to a bus terminal at Chungi No 26.

Meanwhile, another video of the housemaid shows her being taken to a hospital in an ambulance after reaching a bus terminal at Sargodha, the sources said, adding that the forensic examination of the videos was being conducted to establish their authenticity.

The incomplete challan contains statements of about one dozen people, including the family members of Rizwana and the middleman who had arranged the housemaid for the judge’s family, the sources said. In his statement, the middleman had told the SJIT that one of the female acquaintances of the judge’s wife had approached him asking him to arrange a housemaid.

Details of the items, including a baton and a cooking spoon which had allegedly been used to beat and torture the housemaid, had also been included in the challan. The police claim to have recovered these items from the judge’s house. The incomplete challan also has details of Rizwana’s injuries and the findings mentioned in the medico-legal certificate (MLC) issued by the District Headquarters Teaching Hospital, Sargodha, they added.

It may be mentioned that on July 23, the family of the housemaid reached the house of the civil judge in the capital from Sargodha to meet her and found signs of torture on her body. Later, she was taken to her native town and then to the DHQ Hospital, Sargodha, for medical assistance as her condition deteriorated.

Later on July 24, the Sargodha police informed the capital police about the torture of the housemaid and provided all the relevant documents, including the MLC and the complaint of her father for registration of the case.

On July 25, the capital police registered a case against the civil judge’s wife.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023