KARACHI: A 15 year-old girl, working as a domestic helper, was allegedly tortured and beaten up by the employer on Monday, claimed the police and her father. The girl was reportedly working in the house of a local builder in the area of Bahadurabad, Karachi.
Senior-Superintendent Police (SSP) East District, Dr Samiullah Soomro, told a private media outlet that the police received a complaint from the father of the girl by a courier service.
However, he said that the family has not yet officially lodged a first information report (FIR), due to which the medical examination of the girl cannot be done to ascertain the intensity of the allegations.
SSP revealed that the police received a complaint four months earlier from the same house owner accusing his house helper stealing over Rs80,000 from his house. Again, he said, no FIR was registered by him.
However, it is claimed by the police that a settlement between both the parties, following the allegation of stolen money, was done without their interference.
Despite these claims, the father of the 15 years-old girl denied such a settlement. Instead, he claimed that the house owner had threatened and intimidated them and made them sign a blank paper in the presence of police.
The girl’s father said that he discovered about the assault when he brought her daughter back home, and her condition started to get worse. He says his daughter later revealed to him that she was subjected to torture on numerous occasions by the house owner.
Her father also accused the house owner of administering injections in her hand since such signs were evident on both hands. Also, he accused him of incarcerating her in the washroom of the house and was not allowed to meet her family for days.
According to him, she was paid Rs8,000 every month as consideration for her work. He explained that the reason not to directly approach the police was that he did not expect justice, and were already coerced in the presence of police to “settle” the issue.
Bahadurabad’s Station House-Officer (SHO) Ghanwar Ali Mahar confirmed to a private media outlet that they received the application of family’s lawyer through the court.
SHO said that since the application did not contain any contact information, they cannot proceed, and instead will have to wait for the court orders till December 20, when the court is scheduled to move further with the application.