Shehla murder: CBI may absolve 'Casanova' BJP MLA

BJP legislator Dhruv Narayan Singh, who had emerged as a key suspect in the murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Shehla Masood in Madhya Pradesh last year, appears to be guilty of nothing more than being a Casanova.In finalising its chargesheet in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has failed to find any evidence that 62-year-old Singh was behind the murder. Instead, the chargesheet maintains that Zahida Pervez, an architect and interior designer, was in a relationship with him and she had hired goons to kill Shehla Masood in the belief that Shehla was getting closer to Singh.[caption id="attachment_306794" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="The CBI believes that the BJP MLA is not involved in this murder case. It has based its conclusions on several facts."][/caption]Dhruv Narayan Singh is married and a father to two.In the CBI’s book, Zahida was possessive about Dhruv Narayan Singh. “So much so that she even made videos of her having sex with Dhruv Narayan Singh in her architect’s office,’’ says a senior CBI official requesting anonymity. “We have seized these videos from Zahida’s office. "Singh apparently was not aware that he was being videotaped with hidden cameras. Zahida apparently did this to rein him in in case he decided to ditch her.The CBI thus believes that the BJP MLA is not involved in this murder case. It has based its conclusions on several facts.First, Zahida maintained a meticulous daily diary. In this tell-tale diary, she does not mention Singh even once. On 16 August 2011, she wrote that Saquib Ali called her around 11.15 am and said: “Mubarak ho, ghar ke samne kaam ho gaya (Congrats! The job is done right outside the house.)’’ Saquib Ali was the hired goon.In the entire month of August, Zahida’s diary doesn’t mention Dhruv Narayan Singh even once!“She did call her friend Saba Farooqui to give the information, thus indicating that Saba was also complicit, but Dhruv Naraya Singh did not figure in the diary at all. Zahida did not even call him,’’ the senior CBI official says, adding that Singh’s chances of being involved in the murder were very low.However, soon after Saba Farooqui was arrested in this case, she did try to implicate Singh when she was taken to the court. Saba is a common friend of Zahida and her husband Assad.On Saba’s testimony, the CBI interrogated Dhruv Narayan Singh a number of times and even put him to the lie-detector test to check on his close relationship with both Zahida and Shehla. But the CBI found that Shehla was merely his latest girlfriend. This was what prompted Zahida to plot her murder.During interrogations and the lie-detector test, the CBI found that Dhruv Narayan Singh had as many as 15 girlfriends and he had bought a cell phone with a sim card for each one of them.Singh comes from a family of senior politicians and he used to move in high society circles using his political connections. His father Govind Narayan Singh was MP chief minister (1967-69) and served as governor of Bihar (1988-89). He himself is a BJP MLA from Bhopal (Central). He is the Bhopal Division Cricket Association President and has also served as Chairman of the MP State Tourism Development Corporation. He resigned from the post of BJP Vice-President of the state unit soon after the Shehla controversy.So far five persons are charged in this case: alleged contract killers Irfan, Saqib Ali (Danger) and Tabish Khan, Zahida Pervez and Saba Farooqui. Zahida paid Rs 3 lakh to the shooters immediately after Shehla’s murder.