Saqib with BJP chief Prabhat Jha. File picture

Bhopal, March 1: The Madhya Pradesh BJP’s “Muslim face” has caused it to dash for a face-saver.

A Bhopal thug arrested in connection with RTI activist Shehla Masood’s murder last year figures in hoardings put up to show the BJP’s success in courting the minorities in the state.

Saqib, in CBI custody for allegedly getting contract killers to eliminate Shehla, also shared the dais with state BJP chief Prabhat Jha and MP Shahnawaz Hussain. That was last June, over two months before the activist was murdered in her car outside her home.

In one part of the state capital, the posters and cutouts hang barely 3km away from a police station, Tila Jamalpura, where Saqib is listed as “wanted” with his photo adorning the rogues’ gallery.

Today, as Saqib stood accused of helping architect Zahida Parvez hire assassins to kill Shehla because of personal enmity, a sheepish Jha suggested he wasn’t aware of the man’s background when they shared the dais.

“We never intend to encourage anti-social elements but you would concede that it is impossible to check the credentials of each individual garlanding us,” said Jha, a Rajya Sabha member and editor of Kamal Sandesh, a party mouthpiece.

But Saqib’s wife Noorjahan today said he had been a BJP activist for the past two years.

Embarrassed by the revelations, Jha has ordered the removal of hoardings carrying Saqib’s photos and said he would write to all district unit chiefs to check the antecedents of those present on the dais at party functions.

The Congress seized on the disclosure. “Saqib’s presence confirms our worst fears. The BJP encourages and harbours criminals. Prabhat Jha is severe in reprimanding others. The time has come for him to introspect and quit,” said state Congress chief and ex-Union minister Kantilal Bhuria.

But minutes after Bhuria castigated Jha and the BJP, it emerged that a Congress councillor had once given Saqib a certificate of “good conduct”.

In November last year, three months after Shehla’s murder, the district authorities had externed Saqib in another case. Manoj Malviya gave the certificate, which Saqib’s lawyers produced in court in their bid to prove his conduct was above board.

A minority body, Masjid Committee, too, had written to the authorities describing him as a “pious” man.

According to Bhopal police, Saqib is accused in at least 25 cases. These range from rioting and intimidation to extortion.

In the Shehla case, the CBI is probing Saqib’s links with a local BJP MLA. The legislator reportedly helped Zahida, the arrested architect, bag government deals and Saqib was said to frequent the leader’s residence.