Shehla murder: Judicial custody of five accused extended

Indore: A special court today extended till 24 April the judicial custody of prime accused Zahida Pervez and four others in connection with the RTI activist Shehla Masood murder case. The Bhopal-based interior designer Zahida, her assistant Saba Farooqui and three alleged shooters, namely Shaikb ‘Danger’, Irfan and Tabish Khan were produced before the special CBI court of Judicial Magistrate Dr Shubhra Singh who extended their custody till April 24, senior public prosecutor Hemant Shukla told reporters. [caption id=“attachment_272737” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Screengrab/ibnlive”]  [/caption] The court also asked Saba to respond by Friday whether she was willing to record her statement under section 164 of CrPc. Saba had refused to record her statement last month even after agreeing to do so. On alleged recovery of two mobile phones (one without a SIM card) from Saba in Indore district jail recently, the CBI urged the court to ensure action and direct a probe into the matter, Shukla said. The court assured the probe agency that appropriate action would be initiated as per jail manual, he said, adding the CBI would also take up the matter for investigation at its level. Meanwhile, when reporters asked Zahida after she came out of the court room if BJP spokesperson Tarun Vijay and party MLA Dhruvnarayan Singh are anyway involved in the killing, she said, “Aap sab ko pata hai… aap sab samjhtein hain…bahut jyada involvement hai unka” (you people know it…you understand better..they are very much involved".) Zahida is accused of plotting the killing of the 32-year-old activist, allegedly over the latter’s growing “closeness” with BJP MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh. Another accused Irfan told reporters that he was “misquoted” in a news item about recovery of drugs from him. Shehla was shot dead outside her residence at posh Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal on 16 August, 2011. PTI