Rs 5 lakh cash reward for info on Shehla murder

New Delhi, Sep 16 (PTI) With no signs of a breakthrough,
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Friday announced a cash
reward of Rs 5 lakh to anyone providing credible information
about the murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood outside her
house in Bhopal in the central Indian state Madhya Pradesh on
August 16.
Sources in the agency said despite being a broad daylight
incident in a crowded locality, no eyewitness has come forward
to give information about it.
"The informer giving reliable information about person(s)
involved in the Shehla Masood murder which leads to their
arrest will be rewarded with Rs 5 lakh by CBI. The identity of
informer will be kept confidential," CBI spokesperson Dharini
Mishra said.
The CBI is also looking for the murder weapon which has
not yet been traced.
Sources said that the award amount might encourage the
elusive eyewitness or people having some clue about the crime
to come forward and share the information.
"It is strange that a woman who is an RTI activist is
shot outside her home in broad daylight in a crowded locality
yet no one has any knowledge about it. It may be that there is
something that is holding people back from sharing information
with the authorities," an official said.
On September 3, Bhopal unit of the agency registered a
case in the murder of Masood after it was referred to it by
the Madhya Pradesh Government.
Shehla was shot dead when she was going towards her car
outside her residence in posh Koh-e-Fiza locality in Bhopal on
August 16.
Madhya Pradesh Police could not figure out the motive
but suspected she may have been eliminated by some powerful
persons against whom she had filed RTI applications.
Shehla had earlier gone on a hunger strike in Bhopal in
support of Anna Hazare's cause. She was also involved in other
causes, including wildlife conservation.
Her father Sultan Masood had said he expected no justice,
being a lower middle-class person, and did not think that
police was probing the case sincerely.
He had alleged that in January, Shehla had filed a
complaint with the Lokayukta that she feared threat to her
life from a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer but no
action was taken.