Indore: Nearly five years after RTI activist Shehla Masood was shot dead in Bhopal, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday granted bail to prime accused Zahida Parvez and her close aide Saba Faruqui in the high-profile murder case.
Shehla Masood, an event-manager-turned-RTI activist, was shot dead outside her Koh-e-Fiza home in Bhopal on August 16, 2011.
On Jan 28, 2017, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court had awarded life-imprisonment to four people including prime accused Zahida Parvez while clemency was offered to fifth accused Irfan who had turned government witness in the murder case.
Soon after the verdict, both Zahida and Saba had filed petitions before the HC seeking bail.
"A certified copy of the judgment would be sent to Ujjain court which would issue release orders for the duo", advocate Vinay Vijayvargiya said. Both Zahida and her long time friend Saba, known for their ill-temper and misbehaviour with jail staff at Indore, were later shifted to Ujjain jail where they are lodged presently.
The 2011 high-profile murder case had hit national headlines after names of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, a RSS functionary and several others figured in the probe report and RTI activists also cried foul.
Masood, a Bhopal native, had started her career at her event management company holding big time events for government departments and corporate clients in mid 2000 but later became an RTI activist after her organisation Uday was registered in 2009.
On August 16, 2011, Shehla's body was found inside her car with bullet injuries on the neck just outside her residence Koh-e-Fiza in Bhopal. The death was declared prima facie a suicide by the Madhya Pradesh Police but the probe was handed over to the CBI on August 19 amid significant public pressure. The apex investigation agency had registered a case on September 3, 2011 and started investigation.
After scanning lakhs of phone calls and quizzing hundreds of persons, the CBI had netted prime accused Zahida, Shehla’s old acquaintance, her fried Saba and contract killers –Irfan, and his aides Shaquib 'Danger' and Tabish.
Initially, her murder was taken to be an outcome of political rivalry due to her anti-corruption endeavours but a subsequent CBI enquiry revealed that a love triangle among her, ex-Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh and an interior designer Zahida Parvez brought her demise.
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