ISLAMABAD (INP): The suspect in Rizwana torture case was arrested after a district and sessions court in Islamabad on Monday rejected the bail plea of Somia Asim — the wife of a civil judge — in a case pertaining to the alleged torture of an underage domestic help in the capital, and ordered police to arrest her.
On directives of court, the suspect was subsequently taken into custody by the capital police from the court’s premises. Somia Asim was booked in the case after she was accused of severely torturing a teenage maid, who was moved to the Lahore General Hospital in critical condition on July 24.
According to the Rizwana’s medico-legal certificate (MLC), she had “laceration on head from vertex, on forehead, right side above eyebrow, swollen upper lips, laceration under upper lip on right side, broken left incisor and left canine, laceration on check, nose bleed, laceration on left side of vertex, multiple bruises on lower leg, fracture on right forearm, swollen left and right eyelids, bruise on right skull, laceration on back, multiple bruises on back and attempt on strangulation.”
The Islamabad Police after showing reluctance had registered a first information report in the case on July 26. Initially, the police booked the judge’s wife for criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement, without mentioning physical torture in the FIR. However, eight more sections — including murder — were later added to the FIR.
On July 28, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had granted protective bail to the judge’s wife till August 1. Last week, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had granted the suspect pre-arrest bail in the case till August 7. However, upon the expiry of her pre-arrest bail, Somia appeared before Additional District and Sessions Judge Farrukh Fareed Baloch who rejected the bail and directed her arrest.
Maid torture case, Somia Asim arrested
