Shehla Masood murder case solved but questions remain on conspiracy, politicians' nexus with criminals & investigation

Shehla Masood

First the CBI said that Zahida Parvez, an interior designer, had planned RTI activist Shehla Masood's murder and hired contract killers for shooting Shehla in front of her house in Koh-e-Fiza in Bhopal.

But the CBI didn't reveal much about the motive. It hinted that Zahida was obsessed with BJP's Bhopal MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh, a philanderer, who had many more girl friends, and is known to be a socialite in the high circles in capital.

Was Zahida upset that Dhruv was getting close to Shehla also? She got in touch with 'supari' killers through Bhopal-based man Saqib alias Shakib Danger. Two or three people rode the motorcycle on August 16 and one of them had fired just a single gunshot that killed Shehla.

But the identity of the killers remains a mystery. The name of Kanpur's Shanu Olanga was doing rounds first. Irfan and Salim were the other names. Later it was said Shanu Olanga was murdered because one after the other all the sharp-shooters involved in the case were being targeted.

Investigators then hinted that Shanu was not the shooter at all. Irfan was arrested but where was Salim? Irfan agreed that it was not Shanu but he himself had fired the gunshot. So CBI was unable to extract information from Irfan even after many days of custody.

Then police arrested Tabish. Names like Kasid, Raees Banarasi, Mamavind and others also are now doing rounds. Polygraph test revealed a lot about Dhruv Narayan Singh and his relations. For the police, the biggest challenge is to recover the weapon used in the crime.

Even after keeping the accused in custody, and interrogating them for weeks, it seems that the agency has not able to piece together the story. There are lot of grey areas in the versions. CBI and UP STF that played an important role in cracking case, have their own versions.

Will the high and mighty be exposed and the replies of the persons on whom polygraph was conducted brought in public domain or again it will be hushed up? One hopes that the CBI breaks its silence soon and comes up with a convincing motive and the entire turn of events that led to one of the most mysterious of murders in India.

Guards, security personnel's misbehaviour with visitors on DB City mall premises in Bhopal!

The complaint of misbehaviour by security guards and staff at Hypercity store which is located inside DB Mall at Bhopal should be taken seriously.

Legislator was mistreated by guards

The reputation of a brand gets sullied by such incidents. Congress MLA Pachilal Medha was at the cash counter when his five year old son innocently picked up a packet of biscuit which his father didn't notice but was seen by security personnel.

They harassed the MLA, separated him from his family, took him to a room where he was kept confined for more than an hour and even made him sign an apology letter. Though he said that he would pay a penalty and was ready to apologise, they mistreated him.

The incident is not the first such case. When DB Mall was opened, everybody had high hopes as it was one of the best shopping malls in India, spread over a huge area.

It functions well and has enlivened the city but there are issues with the staff.

1. They feel that as Dainik Bhaskar group owns the mall, no one can take any action against them.

2. The staff gangs up, particularly, on first floor and bullies people. The worst is that whenever motor route is changed, they don't inform and when the person takes the earlier route, the guards' tone is extremely rough.

3. The security personnel are mostly from the region where people speak harshly and use a rural dialect unlike Bhopal. They use 'tum/tu/aao/jaao', which is upsetting.

4. There should be training for guards and they should be able to speak politely, without any arrogance to the citizens visiting the mall.

5. There should not be separate sets of rules for the Well-dressed sophisticated people and youngsters with body piercing on one hand, while mistreatment with the lesser mortals who don't dress fancily or come out on two-wheelers.

When the mall was opened, we had welcomed it. We hope that it will improve the conduct of security guards and set higher standards.