CB BureauAvid RTI and anti-corruption activist
Shehla Masood was shot dead yesterday by an unidentified gunman in the northern
Indian city of Bhopal. The fatal episode happened outside her home as she was
just about to drive to an Anna Hazare protest meet.
Masood, known for her zealousness for wildlife
conservation, had filed at least 40 right to information applications involving
forest and police officers. Thus, while the police remained clueless until late
night about her killer, immediate suspicion fell on tiger poachers she had
sought to expose in her campaigns. In fact, going by Facebook and Twitter posts
of some friends of the activist, it seems that her work in exposing illegal
diamond mining in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh could also have led to her
murder.
According to reports, last year Masood had
informed the authorities that she ‘feared for her life’ from a senior officer
of the Indian Police Service and had complained about the matter to two
successive police chiefs of the state. Further, in recent weeks, she had
complained to the police and district officials about harassment and threats
after she began pursuing the death of a tigress in Bandhavgarh National Park,
Madhya Pradesh. The big cat was apparently run over by a vehicle inside the
park and Masood was pursuing the case in court.
‘She has been murdered. She was a daring
girl who raised many issues through RTI. She’s a martyr,’ said her father
Masood Siddiqui, a retired government officer.
The police have taken her mobile phone and
laptop, and also sealed her office in MP Nagar where she had her RTI office. For
the time being, the police has refused to make any pointed statement about the
who and why of the murder. ‘There are many theories but it’s too early to say
anything as the post-mortem report is awaited,’ said SSP Adarsh Katiyar.
In her LinkedIn account, Masood, who also
ran an event management company called Miracles, had stated thus: ‘My currency
is ideas and loads of ideas, own set of rules and strategies which are always
evolving.’ The 35-year-old has most likely paid the ultimate price for raising
uncomfortable questions and for not looking the other way while assorted mafia
groups grazed the environmental hotspots.