MULTAN, June 22: The Multan bench of the Lahore High Court granted bail to another accused in the Afsheen Mussart murder case as the deceased's mother and husband turned up to on Tuesday to pardon him. Fazeel Raza Sahu was granted bail against a bond of Rs100,000.

Earlier, accused Hammad Raza had also been awarded bail by the LHC. Now, only two accused have remained behind the bars. They are the deceased's father Mussart Sahu and grandfather Allah Ditta Sahu.

The court sources revealed that Afsheen's mother Parveen Akhtar and husband Nouman had submitted two separate affidavits under Section 309 of the Qisas and Diyat laws that the accused had clarified his position about his innocence in the matter beyond any doubt. Therefore, they did not have any objection if the court granted him bail.

A computer-science graduate, Afsheen was married to her cousin Nouman reportedly against her will as she wanted to marry another cousin Hasan Mustafa. Later on, Afsheen and Hasan eloped and remained in hiding for some days.

However, their families got wind of their hideout and Afsheen was later handed over to her parents by a council of family elders with an assurance that she would be divorced by Nouman to marry Hasan. But, after a few days, she was declared dead by her parents in mysterious circumstances.

In an application to police, Rashid Rehman of the HRCP had doubted that Afsheen's death was natural. The police did not take any action until President Gen Pervez Musharraf took notice of the incident.