Ex-CM's son quizzed in Shehla murder case

BHOPAL: The son of a former Madhya Pradesh chief minister has been questioned by police in connection with RTI activist Shehla Masood's murder. Two other BJP leaders have been sent notices to appear before the investigating team.BJP MLA from Bhopal Dhruv Narayan Singh, who is also the son of former late chief minister Govind Narayan Singh, has been questioned about his relationship with Masood. Of the two other BJP leaders, one is said to be close to Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, the prime accused in the Malegaon blasts case. The other is a sitting Rajya Sabha MP. An IPS officer and a member of an erstwhile Chhattisgarh-based royal family are also to be interrogated.Masood had stepped out of her home at 11am on August 16 to join Anna Hazare's Jan Lokpal bill campaign at the boat club in Bhopal. She was later found dead with a bullet wound in her neck in her car parked outside her home. Sources in the police department said most of the suspects are Masood's former friends who later began evading her. Their riftsoccurred after Masood became an RTI activist. Police also suspect that hermurder could have been executed by a shooter from Bhind district inChambal.Masood ran an event management company, Miracles, until2009. It organized a number of programmes hosted by the state culture departmentincluding a dance show performed by BJP MP Hema Malini in Bharat Bhavanmulti-arts centre in Bhopal in July 2008. Sources in police headquartersrevealed that at least one major RSS function held outside the statewas alsoorganized with the help of Miracles. Masood got these assignments allegedly uponthe insistence of Dhruv Narayan.Her differences with IPS officerPawan Shrivastava (now DIG Indore) started around this time. Shrivastava wasthen director, culture department. Masood acquiring government assignmentsthrough Dhruv Narayan allegedly upset Shrivastava, and he refused to clear herpayments after which she complained to the state's DGP SK Rout and the homeminister, claiming a threat to her life from Shrivastava.During theinterrogation, Dhruv Narayan admitted that not only was Masood in touch with himbut he was also attached to her NGO Uday for a while. However, he said he laterhad differences with the RTI activist. "She used to speak to me often", Singhtold cops. BJP sources, however, said that Singh had started avoiding her sinceearly this year. Police are also probing why the friend of a prominent BJPleader had purchased property for her in the outskirts of Bhopal; he wasinstrumental in setting-up a meeting between the BJP leader and Masood.