Love triangle not motive behind Shehla's murder: Sultan Masood

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RTI activist Shehla Masood's father Sultan Masood has refuted claims that she was eliminated because of an alleged 'love triangle' involving her and hinted at a 'larger conspiracy' behind the crime.

"The theory of a love triangle (allegedly involving Shehla, BJP MLA Dhruv Narayan Singh and an accused - Zahida Pervez) is totally implausible in my view," Sultan told agencies on Shehla's first death anniversary on Thursday evening.

Shehla was shot dead on August 16 last year when she was sitting in her car just outside her house in the posh Koh-e-Fiza locality of Bhopal.

CBI had so far arrested Zahida, her close confidant Saba Farooqui, and alleged killers - Irfan Ali, Tabish and Shaqib Danger - in the case which is under trial at a court in Indore. Sultan said Shehla used to spend most of her time in New Delhi and would come here only for short trips for her RTI work, while Dhruv and Zahida were in Bhopal.

"How can a love triangle take place between the three when one of them was not in the city where the other two were living," Sultan asked and added that even on the day of her killing, she was scheduled to go for an RTI hearing and attend a protest in support of Anna Hazare.

Terming the probe in the case till now as 'half truth half lies', the slain activist's father felt that 'CBI has till now not found the main persons behind the conspiracy to kill his daughter'.

"Shehla's killers may have been nabbed, but the curtain is yet to be lifted from the faces of the main persons who were behind the conspiracy to kill her," he said without naming anybody.

He admitted that he had met MLA Dhruv Narayan once when he had come to his house. Appreciating the media coverage in the case, he said, "It was because of the pressure built by the print and electronic media through sustained coverage of Shehla's killing that the state government was forced to refer the matter to the CBI."