News Desk l
A district and sessions court in Multan on Tuesday granted bail to Mufti Abdul Qavi for surety bond worth Rs. 200000 in the Qandeel Baloch murder case almost a month after his arrest.
Earlier, a judicial magistrate on Monday extended the judicial remand of cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi for seven days in connection with the ongoing investigations into the Qandeel Baloch murder case.
Read more: Controversial selfies still haunting Mufti Qavi
Qandeel had been murdered last year, allegedly by her brother Mohammad Waseem, who said he killed her in the name of ‘honor’.
Qandeel was the sole bread earner of her family. Her murderer (brother), Waseem, used to draw money from Qandeel’s account to cover his costs, to open a mobile shop for himself and to construct a house for his entire family.
Police had included Mufti Qavi’s name as a suspect in the murder case on the request of Qandeel’s father, Muhammad Azeem who in a statement before the police suspected the cleric’s possible role in her murder.
The entire nation was shocked when a video was released in which Qandeel was seen ‘teasing’ one of the most revered and respected religious scholars of the country, Mufti Abdul Qavi. As soon as the video was released online, it took social media by storm and calls were made to sack the Mufti from all the important designations in his portfolio. Mufti Qavi was stripped of his membership of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee as soon as the video and selfies with Qandeel came out.
This seemed to be just another controversy involving the social media celebrity but that didn’t turn out to be the case. Only a month after the release of this videotape, Qandeel Baloch was murdered by her own brother in the name of ‘honor’.
This led many to suspect that Mufti Abdul Qavi was involved or at least abetted the murder of Qandeel Baloch. The National Ulema Mushaikh Council revoked his membership after he was nominated in Qandeel’s murder case.
Read more: The first death anniversary of Qandeel
Qandeel was the sole bread earner of her family. Her murderer (brother), Waseem, used to draw money from Qandeel’s account to cover his costs, to open a mobile shop for himself and to construct a house for his entire family. In this case, the complexity has been increased by the alleged involvement of the Mufti who seems to have probable cause of wanting Qandeel dead after the leaked pictures and video with her ruined his ‘reputation’ and got him fired.