Shehla case: Court frames charges against five accused

A special Central Bureau of Investigation court on Saturday framed charges against all the five accused, including Zahida Parvez, in connection with the Bhopal-based right to information activist Shehla Masood murder case.

While charges of murder under section 302 and criminal conspiracy under section 120-B of Indian Penal Code were framed against prime accused Zahida, the Special CBI court of Judge Anupam Srivastav framed charges under sections 302, 120-B and 201 (destroying evidences) of IPC against her aide Saba Farooqui.

Zahida, an interior designer based in Bhopal, is accused of hatching a conspiracy to murder the 32-year-old activist for her 'closeness' with Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly Dhruv Narayan Singh.

However, in its chargesheet filed in the court of special CBI Judge Shubra Singh in May, the CBI had given a clean chit to Singh.

The charges were also framed on Saturday against alleged contract killers Irfan Ali and Tabish Khan under sections 302 (punishment for murder) read with sections 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of IPC and related sections of the Arms Act.

Similar charges in addition to section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of IPC were framed against another accused Saquib Ali 'danger'.

The court asked the prosecution to file additional documents, material or chemical probe report against the accused in the case, if they wanted so, before August 1, the next date of the hearing.

All the accused pleaded innocence when the charges were read out to them by the court. Shehla was shot dead outside her house in Bhopal's Koh-E-Fiza locality on August 16, 2011.