Shehla Masood murder case trial adjourned

The Special CBI court on Friday adjourned the trial in the Shehla Masood murder case till April 10 as the new CBI prosecutor sought time to secure documents on call details in connection with the case from private telecom companies.

Special CBI Judge Anupam Srivastava adjourned the trial till April 10 after the new CBI prosecutor, Atul Kumar, submitted a request for seeking time to secure original documents on the call details from private telecommunication companies, including Reliance.

The call details, believed to be among the accused and other people connected with the case, were part of the chargesheet filed by CBI last year.

Accused Saba Farooqui's defence counsel Sunil Srivastava told reporters that he had objected in the court the demand of the new CBI prosecutor, who did not come prepared on the matter and sought more time to delay the trial.

"A change of prosecutor by the investigating agency would not affect the case, and it appeared that the CBI is avoiding appearance of prosecution witnesses as was evident in the previous trials too," Srivastava alleged.

As the prosecution witness could not furnish original call records documents cited as evidence during the hearing in the case on February 13, the court had then postponed the trial for Friday.

All five accused in the case - Zahida Parvez, Saba, and three alleged shooters Saquib Ali 'Danger', Irfan, and Tabish were present in the court.

Till now Hemant Shukla, CBI's senior public prosecutor, was handling the case since filing of chargesheet.

Masood was shot dead outside her house in Bhopal's Koh-E-Fiza locality on August 16, 2011.