Tayyaba's parents backtrack again, call allegations of torture 'lies'

ISLAMABAD: The parents of 10-year-old Tayyaba — who was beaten allegedly by her employers — have declared false the charges of torture levelled against the sessions judge and his wife. 

The trial on a daily basis started in the Islamabad High Court on Friday.

At the hearing held under Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tayyaba's parents informed the court they did not hold the accused couple, Additional Districts and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram and his wife Maheen Zafar, responsible for the torture marks on their daughter's body.  They also told the court that the case filed against the couple is false.

The 10-year-old's parents submitted a compromise notice in the court before the sessions judge and his wife could be indicted in the case. They told the court they did not want to pursue the case further.

However, the court asked the police to submit a response on the case by May 5.

The case of torture on Tayyaba — who was working as the domestic help at the sessions judge house — caught media's attention after she was recovered from the accused couple's house.

The minor girl, whose face and hands bore torture marks, had initially denied being beaten by her employers. She had told the police that she got a wound to her eye after falling from the stairs, while her hand was also burnt accidentally.

However, the girl narrated her ordeal after being politely enquired by a female magistrate later. She told the magistrate she was beaten and her hand was burnt on the stove for losing a broom.

But the matter had taken a turn when it was settled out of court.

The chief justice took suo motu notice of the case, but the child and her father had mysteriously disappeared then.

After the Supreme Court ordered the child be produced in the court, police sprung to action. Tayyaba was then found from the suburbs of Islamabad.