ISLAMABAD – Jail sentences for a suspended judge and his wife were increased to three years from one year by the Islamabad High Court in child maid torture case on Monday.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, rejected the petition filed by former suspended Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar against one-year conviction awarded by a single bench of the high court in Tayyabad torture case. Besides intensifying the punishment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on the convicts.
The decision comes after Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered on June 4 the high court to decide on the appeals.
Following the verdict, the police took the couple into custody from the courtroom in order to shift them to the jail.
Earlier on April 23, the high court has suspended the jail sentence awarded to the couple while hearing the petition against the conviction.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/headline/ihc-suspends-jail-sentence-awarded-to-couple-in-tayyaba-torture-case/
On April 17, a single-bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq sentenced the former judge and his wife to one year in prison on the charges of assaulting, confining, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning, harming and injuring the minor housemaid.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/tayyaba-torture-case-ihc-to-announce-verdict-today/
On December 29, 2016, Tayyaba, a 10-year-old tortured maid was recovered from the house of the judge from a suburban area of the federal capital.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/tortured-maid-tayyaba-recovered-police/
The case of the alleged torture of the maid caught the media’s attention after she was recovered from the residence of Additional Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan who was probed over alleged torture of 10-year-old as the issue sparked outrage on social and mainstream media.
An investigation report by the police had found that the wife of the judge was responsible for torturing the child maid, moreover, the report also accused Khurram of indirect criminal negligence.
Later, on January 3, 2017, Tayyaba’s parents reached a compromise and forgave the accused after which Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took a suo motu notice of the compromise agreement and ordered the IHC to conduct a trial of the case.
