Shehla Masood case: CBI director to review probe progress

CBI Director, A P Singh, would be arriving in Bhopal this evening to review the progress of the investigation of RTI activist Shehla Masood murder case.

Singh would hold a meeting here, agency sources said.

CBI has so far arrested three persons in the case: city-based interior designer Zahida Pervez, her assistant Saba Farooqi, and Shakib Danger.

Another suspect, Irfaan, was arrested by the special task force of Uttar Pradesh police at Kanpur in another case.

Irfaan was allegedly hired by Shakib on Zahida's behalf to eliminate Shehla. According to the preliminary probe, Zahida was jealous of Shehla Masood's alleged closeness to the local BJP MLA, Dhruv Narayan Singh.

Irfaan allegedly told the UP police that he, along with Shanu Aulanga and Salim, shot Shehla outside her house in Koh-e-Fiza area here on August 16, 2011.

Accordingly, it was Shanu who actually shot her. Shanu was later killed in an unrelated incident in Kanpur; Salim is still at large.
CBI has also questioned Dhruv Narayan Singh. It has yet to find the weapon used in the crime.

The CBI remand of the arrested persons would end tomorrow, so the visit by CBI Director assumes significance.

In another development, special CBI court in Kanpur today allowed interrogation of Irfan in Bhopal by CBI. The warrant for interrogation was handed over to the district jail authorities by a CBI team which had come from Indore.

"After receiving the warrant, we have sought permission from the Metropolitan Magistrate to give Irfan's custody to CBI," District jail Superintendent R N Pandey said.