Islamabad (Staff Report): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed an appeal challenging the conviction of a former judge and his wife and increased their sentence to three years in child maid torture case.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Athar Minallah and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, rejected the petition filed by suspended Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar against one-year conviction awarded by a single bench of the high court. Besides intensifying the punishment, the court also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on the convicts in Tayyabad torture case.
On June 4, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had ordered the high court to decide on the appeals.
Following the verdict, the police took the couple into custody from the courtroom in order to shift them to the jail.
Earlier on April 23, the high court has suspended the jail sentence awarded to the couple while hearing the petition against the conviction.
Raja Khurram and his wife Maheen were accused of keeping the then 10-year-old Tayyaba in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom, and threatening her of "dire consequences".
On April 17, the IHC , in its verdict, had sentenced the couple in addition to levying a fine of Rs50,000 each. The accused had subsequently challenged the verdict on April 23 and also had their bail applications approved against surety bonds of Rs50,000, following which the case was adjourned.