Bhopal architect got Shehla Masood killed, CBI arrested

In a major breakthrough, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested a Bhopal-based architect Zahida Pervez in connection with the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood in August last year.

Pervez is presently in the CBI custody and is believed to have informed the investigators that she had some personal rivalry with the RTI activist.

Pervez had also confessed before the CBI officials that she had hired a contract killer to get Masood eliminated. However, the person who allegedly shot at the RTI activist was later killed in Kanpur.

The investigations into the murder of the RTI activist was finally transferred to the Delhi branch of the CBI. Prior to that, the murder was being looked into by the Bhopal unit of the central probe agency.

The decision to hand over the case to CBI Delhi office was taken in view of the fact that not much headway was made into the investigations in the case.

The Bhopal Unit of the CBI had begun investigations into the killing on September six.

The Bhopal unit had even announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for anyone giving information leading to the arrest of the assailant(s).

The 32-year-old activist was shot dead in broad daylight in front of her house on August 16 last year, while she was leaving for a campaign of India Against Corruption (IAC). She had, earlier, alleged that she was getting threatening calls.

Shehla was working on several issues including good governance, police reforms, environment, tiger protection, transparency and RTI Act.

The case was given to the CBI three weeks after she was murdered.