A district and sessions court in Islamabad has accepted the post-arrest bail application of Somia Asim – the wife of a civil judge and the primary accused in the infamous teenage maid Rizwana torture case.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Syed Muhammad Haroon Monday heard the bail petition filed by the accused. The judge accepted her bail application against the submission of surety bonds worth Rs100,000.
A district and sessions court last month rejected the bail extension plea of the accused and ordered her arrest in the case.
Another court had earlier granted interim bail to the accused against a surety bond of Rs100,000, directing her to cooperate with the investigation.
In her bail application, the accused had termed the allegations levelled against her in the first information report (FIR) ‘baseless, concocted and result of exaggeration’. She maintained that the teenage maid was hired with the consent of her parents and no physical violence was committed against her.
The first information report (FIR) of the incident was registered at the Humak police station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Manga Khan. It contained sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Subsequently, the police added 324 (attempted murder), 328-A (cruelty to a child) and other sections pertaining to grievous hurt to the FIR.
Case background
According to the complainant, who works as a daily wage labourer at the vegetable market in Sargodha, the girl had been working at the house of the judge in Islamabad for the last six months. She was paid Rs10,000 per month.
On July 23, he along with his wife and a relative went to visit the child. They found her badly injured and crying. She had a wound on the back of her head that had become infected and infested with maggots, the complaint said.
The victim’s father details the various injuries visible on the girl, including her swollen face, cut lip, broken tooth, strangulation marks on the neck, and injuries on the arms and legs.
The FIR further stated that when they asked the girl who tortured her, she said it was the wife of the judge. Quoting his daughter, Khan said that the woman would beat the girl with sticks, starve her and keep her locked in a room.
The girl had earlier undergone an examination at the District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital in Sargodha, with hospital sources confirming to The Express Tribune that the girl had broken bones and ribs, as well as various other signs of torture including burn marks.
In heart-wrenching images that circulated widely on social media, the girl could be seen howling in pain as a doctor tried to highlight the different parts of her body that had been subjected to torture.
The girl has since been shifted to Lahore, where she was said to be under intensive care at a local hospital. The father said she was ‘between life and death’ and that it was getting harder for him to get her the treatment she needed.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 5th, 2023.
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