Activist Shehla Masood murder case: HC grants bail to convicts Zahida Pervez and aide

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted bail to designer Zahida Pervez and her close aide Saba Farooqui who were convicted in the RTI activist Shehla Masood murder case, according to media reports. The two are currently lodged in Ujjain jail.

“A certified copy of the judgment will be sent to the Ujjain court, which will issue release orders for the duo”, advocate Vinay Vijayvargiya said. The court has ordered a suspension of their punishment, said the reports.

Pervez and Farooqui had moved the high court for bail after a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Indore had convicted them and two others. Calling the CBI court’s verdict extreme, Pervez had said she had been sentenced “without any concrete evidence and witnesses”. “It is nothing but CBI pressure, which rules the roost in Madhya Pradesh.”

On January 28, the CBI court convicted the four of killing Masood outside her Bhopal home in August 2011 and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The two others were identified as Saqib Ali and Tabish.

While the Bhopal Police had initially said the activist had committed suicide, the case was later handed over to the CBI after accusations of a cover-up surfaced. Following its investigation, the CBI had said Pervez had become jealous of Masood’s closeness to former Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Dhruv Narain Singh. Pervez approached Ali, who in turn hired Tabish and another man, Irfan, to kill Masood.