Sultan Masood: Shehla had 'crucial' papers against state govt

INDORE: Slain RTI activist Shehla Masood’s father, Sultan Masood, on Thursday made a submission before the court that he had heard his daughter had procured some “crucial” documents through the Right To Information (RTI) Act, which would have put the present ruling BJP government in the state in trouble. He appeared before the judge Anupam Srivastava of special CBI court as one of the witnesses in the case.
On cross-examination by the defence lawyer of prime accused Zaheda Parvez, A J Bhojwani, Masood said he had heard from his daughter that she was in possession of some crucial documents, which could shake the government. All the five accused in the case -- Bhopal-based interior designer Zaheda Parvez, her friend Saba Farooqui, shooters Saquib Ali ‘Danger’, Irfan and Tabish are being tried in the case.
Quoting the father of the slain activist, defence lawyer of one of the accused Saba Farooqui, Sunil Srivastava who was in the court during the trial, quoting the father of RTI activist said that Sultan Masood had submitted before the court that the RTI activist was a close friends with many persons including BJP leaders Tarun Vijay and Dhruv Narayan Singh. On being asked as to what kind of friendship, Masood said that his daughter was having cordial relationship with Dhruv Narayan Singh and was a close friend of Tarun Vijay.
Replying to the cross-examination, father of slain RTI activist said BJP MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh was frequenting his house about one-and-a-half year ago. The names of Dhruv Narayan Singh and Tarun Vijay have not figured in the CBI chargesheet.
“The MLA lied to me about his location when I told him about the murder of my daughter,” said advocate Srivastava quoting Sultan.
Next hearing in Shehla case on Friday
Sultan Masood said Dhruv Narayan Singh had said that he had passed him a message that he was in Ujjain, whereas, his sources had confirmed that he was in Bhopal at the time of the murder of Shehla Masood.
Sultan Masood said the Bhopal police did not look into his complaint properly. “No bullet shots were heard from outside “my house,” said advocate Srivastava quoting Sultan, adding that neither an aunt of Shehla Rubab Zaidi heard any sound of bullet. Shehla was found shot dead in her car outside her house in Koh-e-Fiza locality of Bhopal on August 16 last year. The defence lawyer said Sultan had claimed that he received an anonymous call at about 10.15 am on the day of the murder of his daughter asking him- Whether his landline telephone had a caller ID.
The next hearing will be held on Friday wherein three more witnesses, including aunt of the slain RTI activist, Shehla Masood, Rubab Zaidi, who resides above Shehla’s house, would appear before the court.
Well-known criminal lawyer Majid Memon, who has been fighting a case for Shehla’s father, said his client feels that injustice is being meted out to him by the investigating agency.