Shehla murder bleak reminder of unsolved killings

The shocking murder of RTI activist Shehla Masood on August 16 was a bleak reminder of at least two such incidents in the past involving the women victims, who some way or the other had been associated with public life and died under mysterious circumstances, sources in local police said.

On February 15, 1997, the burnt body of Congress leader Sarla Mishra was found in her flat in the South T T Nagar area of Bhopal.

It is alleged that a day before her body was found she had an altercation with some senior Congress leaders.

Investigations into her death went on for around three years and after that the police filed the closure report for the case.

The request of CBI enquiry made by her family members, including her brother, was never accepted.

As a result of this, no one knows till today whether Sarla was burnt by someone or she took her own life, sources said.

Another case was of Sangeeta Kaze, a BJP corporator in the city who was set ablaze at her residence in September 1998.

Initially, it was suspected that her husband Ashok could have been behind the incident but he committed suicide some days after the incident.

Sangeeta also succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital after death of her husband.

In this case also, police filed a closure report and hence there is no version of how and why she was burnt.

While Sarla was known to the influential leaders in Congress circles, Sangeeta wielded some power with the BJP.

The case of Shehla Masood is slightly different as the Madhya Pradesh government has already requested the Centre to order a CBI probe into the case as demanded by local Congress leaders.