By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: While hunt is on to nab her assailants, woman RTI activist Shehla Masood was laid to rest at Bada Bagh burial ground here late on Tuesday night. A number of friends, relatives, social workers and eminent citizens attended the funeral. She was shot dead from point blank range by an unidentified person in broad day-light here in Bhopal yesterday.
According to police, she was shot dead at about 11.30 am (IST) when Ms Shehla, was leaving for her office from her residence in posh Koh-e-Fiza locality in her car. She was found slumped in the driver seat by her relatives with bullets piercing her neck. According to her aged aunt Rubab Zaidi, Shehla was entering her car to leave for office when she was shot by a person. She said when the car did not drive away, she came down from her house and found Shehla slumped inside. Zaidi then called Shehla’s father who found she had been shot. She was rushed to hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.
Shehla Masood
Ms Shehla, in her late thirties, was unmarried and her only sister lives in the United States. She was living with her father Masood Sultan and her aunt Rubab Zaidi at Koh-e-Fiza house.
Ms Shehla, who sat on a fast here recently in support of Anna Hazare’s “India Against Corruption” campaign had also been working on a number of other things including wildlife conservation. She was actively involved in raising issues related to the deaths of tigers in the various sanctuaries of Madhya Pradesh.
The motive behind the killing could not be ascertained behind this gruesome murder. However, it is believed that her campaign against the corrupt practices of bureaucrats, top police officials and politicians made her to pay with her life. Ms Shehla was an RTI campaigner since 2009, seeking to bring out information related to wildlife and bureaucracy.
Mufti Arsh Shariff, a cousin of Ms Shehla Masood, revealed that she had got a threatening call from a Delhi number on Monday night.
Ms Shehla was sore in the eyes of some bureaucrats, politicians, and industrialist of the State, as she had become very powerful as whistleblower. She had filed RTI queries against 19 IAS (Indian Administrative Service), 13 IFS (Indian Forest Service) and seven IPS (Indian Police Service), sources revealed. Some of mining mafias of the State also had grudges against her since she was working against them for longer time.
She had allegedly lodged a complaint of harassment against a senior police officer three years ago. However, she had not demanded any security, officials said.
Social activist Ajay Dubey demanded probe by Central Bureau of Investigation, (CBI), India’s premier investigating agency, into the murder of Ms Shehla. He expressed doubt that since she had raised questions regarding several tiger deaths across the state forest officials who were involved in the racket may have got her killed. ([email protected])