Jodhpur:
The Centre Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today submitted its second status report on the Bhanwari Devi disappearance case. The agency has requested the Rajasthan High Court, which is monitoring the probe, to have a private hearing of the case.
It had submitted the first status report on November 11. Pointing out that the agency's credibility was at stake, the Rajasthan High Court had asked the CBI to speed up the probe and submit another status report by today.
Earlier this month, the CBI had questioned sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna, who is the prime suspect in the case. The former minister reportedly confessed to having had a relationship with the missing auxiliary nurse-midwife but denied any role in her disappearance. The agency had subsequently questioned another Congress leader, Luni MLA Malkhan Singh, over his links with Bhanwari Devi.
36-year-old Bhanwari Devi went missing from Bilada near Jodhpur on September 1. Her husband, Amarchand Nat, has alleged that she was abducted at the behest of Mr Maderna and his associates, that she has been killed and that her body is still missing.
On the basis of several tapes and audio clips which it has reportedly recovered, the CBI is investigating whether Bhanwari Devi tried to blackmail Mr Maderna for money, threatening to make their relationship public. A CD was circulated when she went missing from her home near Jodhpur. Her body is yet to be found.
Mr Maderna has reportedly told the CBI that he was introduced to Bhanwari Devi by Pushkar Singh. One of the audio clips the investigating agency is looking into has conversations purportedly between Bhanwari Devi and Mr Singh's sister, Indra Vishnoi, in which the MLA's name is mentioned repeatedly. The CBI, which took over the probe in October, has already questioned Vishnoi.
The case came as a huge embarrassment for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was forced to drop Mr Maderna from his cabinet on October 16, after a court directed that a case of abduction and murder be registered against him. Mr Maderna was later suspended from the Congress.