Bishnois may have helped the accused escape, says ATS
SUPPORT Bishnoi kept herself informed of the developments in the case and her business interests in Rajasthan through intermediaries
BHOPAL: Indira Bishnoi, an accused in the sensational Bhanwari Devi murder case, seemed to have the support of her community as she dodged police for six years before her arrest on Friday.
Bishnoi was arrested by a Rajasthan anti-terrorism squad (ATS) team from an ashram in Nemawar in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas. Before moving there, she was staying with a family in Nemawar, which has a tightly knit community of 50 Bishnoi families that migrated from Rajasthan 50 years ago.
“Bishnoi’s father was an influential figure in the community and had connections everywhere, so even though she was a fugitive, she received all support from Bishnois,” Rajasthan ATS superintendent of police Vikas Kumar told HT.
They had handed over Bishnoi to CBI and also a list of people who helped her during her stay in MP, the ATS SP said.
Bishnois are members of a Hindu sect that is strictly vegetarian and bans killing of animals and felling of trees. The community that shuns caste name was founded in Bikaner and is scattered in Haryana, Punjab, MP, and Uttar Pradesh.
The murder of the 36-year-old nurse in neighbouring Rajasthan had rocked the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government.
Sixteen people, including former minister Mahipal Singh Maderna and Bishnoi’s bother Malkhan Singh, a former Congress MLA, are in jail for Devi’s murder being probed by the CBI.
Around 18 months ago, the ATS got to know that Bishnoi was moving in and around Nemawar but she managed to evade them, Kumar said.
She kept herself informed of the developments in the case and her business interests in Rajasthan through intermediaries and shunned cellphones to avoid detection. Bishnoi will be in CBI remand for a week.
Before she moved to the ashram seven months ago, Bishnoi stayed in the house of a Parashar family, Dewas police sources said.
While the Parashars lived in Harda, the mother of the head of the family lived in Nagar Ghat. Bishnoi stayed with her and shifted to the ashram when the woman died. (With inputs from Rajneet Gupta in Dewas)