LAHORE: District Bhakkar police come under fire for allegedly torturing a maid after stripping her during an investigation into the theft of a branded watch worth Rs4 million in Kallur Kot.

However, police rejected any type of torture, claiming that the maid was interrogated in the presence of female staff and her father.

A video circulating on social media shows a woman in tears, recounting her ordeal and claiming severe injuries inflicted by policemen.

In the video, she stated that she could not sit on bed due to severe injuries because policemen tortured her with wooden rods after stripping her.

The man filming her video questioned why the policemen tortured her and she replied that she had stolen a watch from the house of her employer some days ago.

He again questioned her to hand over the watch back and they would let you go, to which she said that she had stolen it, taking it as a common watch and gifted it to her friend ‘D’. She said her friend took the watch and fled the scene.

She said she was having an affair with ‘D’ for the last two years and they would often meet at a rented flat and also wanted to contract marriage but he after taking the watch fled away and betrayed her.

According to the first information report, Dr Muhammad Aslam lodged a complaint on March 4 that his maid had stolen a Rolex watch. He stated that the watch belonged to his son-in-law Advocate Shahid Azeem, who came from Lahore, to visit his house on Feb 9 and placed the watch on the dressing table and it went missing.

He said they searched the watch on their own and did not find it and on suspicion, they questioned their maid, who confessed to stealing it and promised to give it back. He said the maid did not return the watch.

He pleaded that the maid had stolen the watch and action should be taken against her and the watch should also be recovered.

Kallur Kot police registered a case against the maid under section 381 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The police arrested the maid who confessed to her crime of stealing the watch and handing it over to a shopkeeper, Ahmad. The police took Ahmad into custody, investigated him and released him after declaring him innocent.

Bhakkar District Police Officer (DPO) Shahzad Rafuque Awan rejected the allegations of torture, sharing videos of maid confessing to the theft.

He said the maid had changed her statement multiple times during the investigation, naming different individuals as the recipient of the watch. The police investigated these individuals and found them innocent.

DPO Awan said the interrogation was conducted in the presence of the maid’s father. He said complainant Dr Aslam primarily wanted to get the watch recovered rather than implicating the maid. The incident, which occurred on Feb, was initially handled by Dr. Aslam and his family before they involved the police.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2025