Jaipur:
Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has launched a sharp attack on current Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, claiming that the CBI is working under Gehlot's instructions in all its investigations in the state.
She also hinted at the possible involvement of Gehlot's relatives in the Bhanwari Devi case.
A government nurse, Bhanwari was abducted and killed last year. Former Rajasthan minister Mahipal Singh Maderna and a former Congress MLA Malkhan Singh were arrested in the case. The CBI says that Malkhan Singh's sister, Indira Bishnoi, convinced Bhanwari to record a sex CD with Mr Maderna, who was then Rajasthan's Minister for Water Resources. The CBI says Ms Bishnoi allegedly wanted to disgrace Mr Maderna, so that her brother could pitch for the minister's post. Bhanwari, the investigating agency says, instead began blackmailing Mr Maderna with the CD of the two of them together. Malkhan Singh, the CBI says, stole the CD from Bhanwari Devi's house and distributed copies among journalists, who made it public. The CBI adds that the two men were fed up of meeting Bhanwari Devi's demands: Mr Maderna, who was being blackmailed, and Malkhan Singh, who the CBI claims, is the father of Bhanwari's youngest child and was constantly being asked for money by her. So, says the CBI, the two political rivals, plotted together to get rid of Bhanwari Devi.
Ms Raje claimed there are not two but 150 sleaze CDs involving Bhanwari Devi.
"I am told that over 150 CDs were made. My question is why were only two found in the investigation? It is being said that there is an involvement of a Central minister as well. And that there are relatives of the Chief Minister also involved in it. There are some officers also involved in it. I want to know why hasn't there been an investigation on that?" she said.
Ms Raje's counter attack comes just a day after Ashok Gehlot had alleged that after the CBI arrested BJP leader Rajendra Rathore in the Dara Singh Fake Encounter case, Vasundhara Raje was "worried" that she too may soon be questioned.
Mr Gehlot had also claimed that Ms Raje's attack on the CBI suggests that she has a 'guilty conscience'' in the Dara Singh encounter case which happened in Mr Raje's tenure as chief minister.