IHC suspends sentence awarded to former judge, wife

RECORDER REPORT

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday suspended the sentence awarded to former Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar by a single bench of IHC in Tayyaba torture case.

The division bench (DB) of IHC comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miagul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the petition filed by the suspended judge challenging his conviction by a single bench of IHC.

After suspending sentence of both the convicts, the IHC division bench issued notices to the respondents and deferred the hearing till second week of May for further proceedings.

The petitioners filed the petition through their counsel Raja Rizwan Abbasi Advocate and cited Tayyaba Bibi and state as respondents.

A single judge bench of Justice Aamer Farooq on April 17, 2018 had convicted Raja Khurram and his wife on charges of harming, neglecting and abandoning their juvenile housemaid, Tayyaba, employed at the judge’s residence in the capital. The couple had obtained bail a couple of hours after their conviction against surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each.

The couple was sentenced one year in jail each and also imposed fine of Rs 50,000 each on them under Section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the minor housemaid’s case.

The couple has filed intra-court appeal on Friday against their conviction in the Islamabad High Court in the Tayyaba torture case. They have pointed out “flaws” in the judgment and the proceedings and have challenged it in accordance with those.

“Impugned judgment manifests that it is illegal, oppressive, beyond the domain of section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) based upon misreading and non-reading of evidence,” the petition read.

They were also charged that they wrongly confined Tayyaba Bibi and she was recovered by the police from their house, therefore, they have committed an offence under Section 342 PPC.

In this connection, the IHC bench noted in its verdict that admittedly, the victim was working as a maid servant at the residence of Raja Khurram Ali Khan and Maheen Zafar, however, the prosecution has not produced any evidence which goes on to show that she was wrongly confined at the aforementioned residence of the said persons.

The judgment said, “Under Section 328-A PPC, 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 up to three years, or with fine which shall not be less than twenty-five thousand rupees and may extend up to fifty-thousand rupees, or with both.”

According to the verdict, “The evidence mentioned above as tendered by the parties clearly shows that the accused persons neglected and/ or willfully harmed and abandoned Tayyaba Bibi which resulted in harm to her or had the potential of causing harm hence have committed the offence as charged and the prosecution has proved the same beyond shadow of doubt. Both the accused have admitted that Tayyaba was working as maid at their house thus was in their care. Raja Khurram Ali Khan being the head of the family and Maheen Zafar being responsible for the daily domestic affairs were jointly responsible for looking after and taking care of the child i.e. Tayyaba Bibi. The version of the accused is that the media hype was created about the incident and hence the FIR is inconsequential as media hype has no bearing on the facts leading to the commission of the offence.”

Justice Aamer Farooq noted in his judgment that in view of above, the prosecution has been able to prove the charge under section 328-A PPC, hence the accused persons Maheen Zafar and Raja Khurram Ali Khan are both jointly responsible for it and are accordingly convicted. They are acquitted of other charges.