Bhanwari case: 6 yrs on, key suspect nabbed from MP
Indira Bishnoi was arrested by the Rajasthan ATS from a hideout in Dewas
In a major breakthrough in the infamous Bhanwari Devi murder case, anti-terrorist squad of the Rajasthan police arrested a key suspect, Indira Bishnoi, from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh.
Additional superintendent of police Dewas Anil Patidar on Saturday said, Indira, who has been carrying a reward of ₹5 lakh on her head, was arrested from Nemawar neighbourhood of Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district.
Bhanwari, a trained auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), was abducted from Jodhpur’s Bilara area on September 1, 2011 and was murdered subsequently.
The sensational case had shaken the then Ashok Gehlot led Congress government in Rajasthan.
Sixteen people, including former minister Mahipal Singh Maderna and Indira’s bother and former Congress legislator Malkhan Singh, are lodged in jail over the incident.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which investigating the case, has so far filed three charge sheets against 16 accused including Maderna and Malkhan Singh.
According to a chargesheet filed by the CBI in the Jodhpur court, it was on Indira’s advice that Bhanwari made a sex tape with Maderna, who was then Rajasthan’s minister for water resources.
The CBI claimed that Indira wanted to disgrace Maderna so that her brother Malkhan could pitch for the minister’s post.
Bhanwari, instead of handing over the tape to Indira began blackmailing Maderna.
Malkhan, the CBI says, stole the CD from Bhanwari’s house and distributed copies among journalists.
The CBI chargesheet said Malkhan had a relationship with Bhanwari and was the father of her youngest child, and she was constantly demanding money from him.
Maderna, whose reputation also took the beating after the sex tape became public, also wanted to take revenge. So the two political rivals got together and plotted to kill Bhanwari with the help of hired killers.
Bhanwari, posted as ANM at a sub-centre in Jaliwada village, around 120 km from Jodhpur, had gone missing on September 1, 2011.
The CBI had said that Bhanwari was allegedly abducted from Jodhpur’s Bilara area and murdered.
Her body was handed over to another gang, which burnt it in a limestone quarry and dumped the remains in a canal, it alleged.
Indira had earlier been questioned by the CBI. But she disappeared soon after.
Additional superintendent of police said Indira had been living in Nemawar, which has a sizeable population of Bishnoi community, as an ordinary woman with the help of one of her close aides for the past five and half years.
To avoid detection, she even avoided using mobile phone and did not even have an ATM card.