Tayyaba torture case: SC sets aside increased sentence of ex-judge, wife

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – The Supreme Court on Friday set aside Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) order to extend the sentence against former additional district and sessions judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar in the Tayyaba torture case. It is pertinent to mention here that the couple was sentenced for torturing a minor girl employed as domestic help in Islamabad — maintaining the one year sentence handed down by the IHC in April 2018. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Musheer Alam, announced the verdict on Friday. In the verdict, the SC set aside the three year sentence and maintained the earlier one year jail term for the convicts. The written judgement announced in an open court today, authored by Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Yayha Afridi, presented a similar judgement on both the convicts' appeals. The court said that the conviction and initial sentence awarded to the convicts will be maintained. Earlier in June 2018, the IHC had extended the sentence the couple from one year to three years in jail and imposed an Rs50,000 fine and another six months for trying to destroy evidence. The case had grabbed the country’s attention in December 2016 when the judge and his wife were booked and were later charged for allegedly assaulting, confining, ill-treating, neglecting, abandoning, harming and injuring the minor housemaid. They were found guilty 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 and stood trial. In April 2018, Justice Farooq had sentenced the couple to serve one year in prison and fined Rs50,000 each under Section 328-A of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) which was later extended by the IHC. The couple, however, could not be arrested as they immediately obtained after their conviction against a surety of Rs50,000 each.