In a fresh twist to the RTI activist Shehla Masood murder case, the CBI has now started looking for a Bhopal-based tantrik (astrologer), who was an alleged adviser of Zahida Parvez, prime suspect in the case.
Probe by the agency has revealed that a few days before the murder of the RTI activist, the astrologer had told Zahida that Masood would vanish soon, sources said
“Scrutiny of the personal diary of Zahida has revealed the motive and chain of events. It is suspected that the murder was purportedly triggered by Zahida’s obsession with a local BJP MLA who was also close to Masood.
One entry in the diary refers to the MLA saying ‘he did not speak to me for two three days but made a call to Shehla for half an hour’, sources said. She had also noted in the diary that later she decided to meet an astrologer in Bhopal.
‘Tantrik said if he (legislator) is enemy, he will be vanished out or if she (Shehla) is enemy then she will be vanished (sic)’, she wrote in her diary.
“The CBI is now looking for the astrologer. His statements may provide leads,” sources in the agency said.
The agency officials, who had conducted searches at the residence of Zahida in Bhopal, recovered her personal diary. Probe has already revealed that Zahida was so obsessed with the MLA that she had kept her one office staff just for monitoring his movements and analysing call details through his duplicate bills, sources said.
The agency sleuths found certain crucial entries on the date August 16, the day Masood was murdered at around 11.15 am outside her home in the posh Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal, sources added.
The CBI meanwhile has recovered a revolver used to kill Masood, and has sent it to forensic experts for examination as the weapon has been tampered with, officials said.
The murder weapon (.15 bore revolver) used in the killing of Masood belonged to Shanu Olanga, a Kanpur-based contract killer who was shot dead by two unidentified motorcycle borne miscreants near the Gora Kabristan area in Kanpur on November 30, 2011.
Probe revealed that Shehla had hired a contract killer for Rs3 lakh for eliminating Masood.