‘A BJP activist, not Masood, was Pervez’s target’

Architect Zahida Pervez, the suspected key conspirator behind RTI activist Shehla Masood's murder in Bhopal, has reportedly disclosed that the deceased was not her original target, Central Bureau of Investigation sources have said.

Architect Zahida Pervez, the suspected key conspirator behind RTI activist Shehla Masood's murder in Bhopal, has reportedly disclosed that the deceased was not her original target, Central Bureau of Investigation sources have said.

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Until July-end last year, about a fortnight before Masood was murdered in Bhopal on August 16, 2011, Pervez had hired contract killers to murder an unmarried woman BJP activist in the city.

“Pervez had issued the original contract to co-accused historysheeter Shakib Ali alias Danger to get a Bhopal-based female party activist killed because she suspected her of being in a relationship with a city BJP legislator,” said the CBI source. “Pervez was in a relationship with the legislator and has been grilled, and suspected that he was cheating on her.”

However, Pervez later cancelled the murder contract meant for the female activist and re-issued it for eliminating Masood instead. She took this step on the basis of information provided to her by one of her employees, who had been given the task of keeping an eye on the legislator, the source said. “The employee… called up Pervez and told her that the legislator had stayed with a woman for hours at a house in Koh-e-Fiza.”

“Pervez realised that the legislator was at Masood’s residence because the two were acquaintances,” the source said.