A Sargodha police official said on Monday a man had been taken into custody in connection with a case of a domestic worker being tortured allegedly by her employers — said to be a judge and his family.

Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Usman Mir shared this information while answering reporters’ queries about the arrest of the man who allegedly took the girl to Islamabad from Sargodha for her to be hired as a domestic worker there.

“The person you’re talking about is already in our custody. He is being questioned and he will be included in the investigation and we will get her justice,” the ASP said.

He also said that their priority was to ensure that the domestic worker was provided with the best possible treatment.

“Th girl’s life is important for us.”

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He did not share details about the injuries the girl sustained. Dawn.com has also not been able to confirm the exact age of the girl.

Meanwhile, a Dawn.com correspondent in Sargodha said her relatives staged a protest over the alleged torture she had been subjected to.

The girl’s father, Manga, who goes by one name, told Dawn News that his daughter was a domestic worker and accused her employers of beating her and “breaking her arms and legs”.

“She was also hit on her head and her wounds were infested with maggots,” he said, appealing to the Punjab police chief and other officials for justice.

The girl’s sister, Soniya, said she used to work at the house of a judge in Rawalpindi and alleged that his wife had been torturing her on the pretext of not doing her chores properly.

“They were torturing her daily,” she said, adding that they had brought her sister back to Sargodha but her treatment was not possible there due to the severity of her injuries.

“Acid was poured on her face. It was a full attempt to kill her,” Soniya alleged, saying that her sister needed to be taken to Lahore for treatment.

She appealed to the chief minister for justice.

In 2016, the case of Tayyaba, a young domestic worker employed in the house of a former additional judge, first came to light after photos of the tortured child began circulating on social media. She was rescued from the residence with visible wounds on December 28, 2016, and a first information report was filed against her employers a day later.

Although the judge had reached a compromise with Tayyaba’s parents on January 2, 2017, the Supreme Court took suo motu notice of the matter two days later with the strict warning that “no agreements can be reached in matters concerning fundamental human rights”.

In June 2018, the judge and his wife were handed down three-year imprisonment and a Rs500,00 fine by the Islamabd High Court.

The apex court in January 2020 set aside the increased sentence and instead, maintained the earlier one-year sentence handed down by the IHC in April 2018.