Shehla case: Judicial custody of four accused extended

Indore: A special CBI court here today extended till 11 April the judicial custody of prime accused Zahida Pervez and three others in connection with the RTI activist Shehla Masood murder case. The Bhopal-based interior designer Zahida, her assistant Saba Farooqui and two alleged shooters Shaikb ‘Danger’ and Irfan were produced before the special CBI court of judicial magistrate Dr Shubhra Singh. [caption id=“attachment_264839” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Screengrab/ibnlive”]  [/caption] As soon as the proceedings began, the defence counsel of BJP MLA Dhruvnarayan Singh whose name also figured in the murder case, filed a petition saying the court was “misled” by CBI on the polygraph test conducted on him. Referring to the petition, senior public prosecutor Hemant Shukla told reporters that “the special CBI court has neither accepted it nor rejected it”. When asked about the content of the petition filed by defence counsel Pradeep Gupta on the behalf of the legislator, Shukla said “it was the proceeding matter and can not be divulged as the court neither accepted nor rejected it”. Meanwhile, the court dismissed the petition filed by one of the accused Shakib’a wife Noorjahan who alleged that CBI was “torturing” her husband in its custody. Reacting to the denial by the alleged sharp shooter Tabish Khan in making statement under section 164 of CrPc in connection with the murder of the 32-year-old activist, Shukla said,“it is the willingness of the accused…CBI can not force him to make a statement”. Shehla was shot dead outside her residence at posh Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal on 16 August 2011. PTI