Irfan shot Shehla at point blank range

BHOPAL: Sharpshooter Irfan, now in custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), had shot RTI activist Shehla Masood in her neck around 11.19 amkilling her on the spot outside her house in Koh-e-Fiza locality on August 16 last year.
After investigations, it has now become clear that it was Irfan who fired at Shehla not Shanu Aulanga - the other shooter - as was believed. Both the shooters hailed from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, a top CBI official revealed on Tuesday.
Another accused Tabish Khan - who was on Tuesday sent to CBI remand till March 26, rode the motorbike used in the crime.
After killing the activist, Irfan handed over the firearm to Tabish.
After Irfan killed Shehla from .314 fire arm, he passed on the information to local history-sheeter Saqib Ali alias Danger who, around 11.26 AM, passed on the information to Zaheda Pervez - the key conspirator of the killing. Zaheda later passed on the information to her close friend Saba Faruqui around 11.26 AM, officials said.
The CBI has detailed log of these timings which they collected after going through 8.70 lakh records of the phone calls made from the tower concerned on August 16, they added.
Investigators are yet to recover the firearm used in the killing. Besides, the CBI is trying hard to get the details of the Rs three lakh paid to the sharpshooters hired by Zaheda.
The deal was struck for Rs five lakh but the killers were paid Rs 3 lakh and Irfan was demanding the remaining amount from Saqib who in turn demanded the same from Zaheda, before the mystery shrouding the death of Shehla was unravelled.
Right now, Zaheda and her acquaintances Danger and Saba are in judicial remand while Irfan and Tabish are in CBI custody.
Danger contacted his Kanpur based cousin Tabish who in turn contacted Irfan and Shanu to execute the murder. Shanu has been killed in gang war unrelated to Shehla murder case in Kanpur last year.
Investigators are yet to recover the firearm used in the killing. Besides, the CBI is trying hard to get the details of the Rs 3lakh paid to the sharpshooters hired by Zaheda. The deal was struck for Rs 5 lakh.