By M M Desk
Najma Bi, mother of slain SIMI activist Sheikh Mehboob from Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh lodged in the Rourkela Special Jail in Odisha since last 28 months has been granted bail by the Supreme Court in a terror-related case.
Mehboob alias Guddu, who was among the eight alleged activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who were gunned down by MP police in an alleged encounter on the outskirts of Bhopal on October 31, 2016 morning, just a few hours they escaped from Bhopal Central Jail.
“The Supreme Court granted bail to Najma on July 2 and we expect her to be out of the jail in Rourkela soon,” her counsel Mubin Akhtar told, while speaking to The New Indian Express.
Four alleged SIMI operatives, including Sheikh Mehboob alias Guddu, Amjad, Zaqir and Mohd Saliq, besides Mehboob’s mother Najma were arrested from a house in Rourkela town in a joint operation of Telangana and Odisha police in February 2016, after a brief encounter with the cops.
“Prior to moving the Supreme Court we had tried to get bail from the district and sessions court and the High Court in Odisha, but the courts denied bail to her. It was in October-November 2017 that we moved the bail plea in the apex court and she was finally granted bail on July 2, 2018,” he added.
The team of lawyers was led by senior Supreme Court advocate Colin Gonsalves, who is also the founder of Human Rights Law Network.