The Bhopal police, after moving slowly and failing to make any headway in its investigation into the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood on August 16, would now be interrogating some VIPs, including high profile BJP Member of Parliament Tarun Vijay who was in contact with her. On his part, Mr Vijay,
while talking to reporters in New Delhi, said, the deceased was a “very good friend” and he was ready to share with the probe agency whatever information he has.
Bhopal IG Vijay Yadav said here that the police has been closely following the case and would be interrogating everyone who was in close touch with the RTI activist. Shehla was shot dead in broad daylight immediately after she got into her car parked outside her residence and was about to go and attend an anti-corruption demonstration in the state capital in support of Anna Hazare.
There were reports that Shehla had a prolonged telephonic conversation lasting about 30 minutes with a senior BJP leader in New Delhi.
Rajya Sabha Member Mr Tarun Vijay has acknowledged that he had been associated with Shehla and her organisation Miracles, which was involved in various projects, including those in Kashmir.
The MP has made an appeal that the murder should not be politicised and justice be done in this case.
Shehla’s father Masood Sultan confirmed that Mr Tarun Vijay was known to his daughter for more than two years and had also visited them once. He was categorical in pointing out that he is not at all a suspect. He further said that he is not happy with the police investigations as the culprits are still at large. Pointing a finger at the mining mafia, he said that Shehla was also busy digging out income tax details of some state ministers and on the day she was murdered, she already had an entry pass made as she had an appointment with the state general administration department (GAD) at Mantralaya — the state secretariat.
AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh along with another Congress general secretary in-charge Madhya Pradesh affairs, B.K. Hariprasad, have demanded a CBI probe as the names of some BJP leaders are doing the rounds in this case. The state government has already written to the Union department of personnel and training to hand over the investigations into the Shehla Masood murder case to the CBI. It could not be ascertained till Thursday whether or not the ministry supervising the CBI has referred the case to the CBI headquarters for carrying out the investigation into this blind murder case.
Moreover, accepting that he had talked to Masood last on August 16, Mr Vijay, a Rajya Sabha MP, said, he and Masood had regularly exchanged notes and demanded that those behind the murder be “booked and hanged”.
“I think that the whole thing got politicised. We stand by the family of Shehla and every right thinking Indian will stand by them,” he said, adding, “Whatever information we have, we will be providing to all the investigation agencies, because we are as much concerned to get justice”.