Masood murder: BJP politician in MP being probed

Based on the questioning of interrogation,the CBI is likely to arrest one more person soon.

A senior BJP politician from Madhya Pradesh is being interrogated by CBI in connection with the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood in which three persons including a woman architect and the alleged contract killer have been arrested.

The architect Zahida Pervez and co-accused Sakib Ali were remanded in six days CBI custody by an Indore court while the alleged contract killer identified as Irfan was sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a court in Kanpur.

CBI sources in New Delhi said that based on the questioning of Zahida,who was arrested yesterday,the agency is likely to arrest one more person soon.

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Irfan,who was picked up by UP Special Task Force from a house at Talaq Mahal locality of Kanpur late last night,has confessed that he and two others were hired for Rs 3 lakh for killing the RTI activist in Bhopal last year,Kanpur police claimed today.

CBI said the agency is yet to ascertain the exact motive which led to the killing of the 32-year-old Masood and that a clearer picture would emerge after detailed questioning of Zahida and Irfan.

CBI sources in Delhi claimed that the BJP politician under its scanner was quite close to Zahida. The agency did not name the politician.

They said the politician has already been questioned by the agency before arrests in the case were made yesterday and if required he would again be interrogated.

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CBI has conclusively found that Masood was in touch with the same politician who was once the head of Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation before differences arose between them because of RTI applications filed by her,the agency sources said.

The sources said the agency is now trying to evaluate if the politician was also involved in the murder conspiracy or not.

During interrogation,Irfan said that he along with Shanu Alaunga,a sharpshooter who was shot dead in an unrelated incident in November last year,and one Salim had been hired for Rs three lakh by a Bhopal-based person to carry out the murder,DSP Samir Saurabh said in Kanpur.