IHC grants bail to couple convicted in Tayyaba torture case

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) granted bail to a former Additional District and Sessions judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar, who were convicted in Tayyaba torture case.

The couple was granted bail on Tuesday against a surety bond of Rs50,000 each.

Raja Khurram, in his application, had requested the court to grant them bail as the imprisonment was less than a year and they wanted to appeal in the apex court against their conviction.

Earlier, the  IHC had sentenced the couple to one-year imprisonment along with imposing a fine of Rs50,000 each in the Tayyaba torture case.

They were arrested from the courtroom after the verdict was announced.

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The couple were sentenced under Section 328-A of the PPC which states that “whoever willfully assaults, ill treats, neglects, abandons or does an act of omission or commission, that results in or has, potential to harm or injure the child by causing physical or psychological injury to him shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which shall not be less than one year and may extend upto three years, or with fine which shall not be less than Rs25,000 and may extend upto Rs50,000, or with both.”

Khan and his wife were charged with assaulting, confining, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning, harming and injuring the minor housemaid.

They had been accused of keeping the girl in wrongful confinement, burning her hand, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom and threatening her with even worse.

The couple had pleaded ‘not guilty’ after they were indicted.

In total, the statements of 19 witnesses were recorded in the case, wherein 11 were from civil servants and eight from private witnesses, including Tayyaba’s parents.