‘Bishnoi used to run handicrafts biz from her hideout’

Indira Bishnoi, one of key suspects in the Bhanwari Devi murder case, used to keep a close watch on the happenings in Rajasthan during the time she was on the run, police said on Saturday.

The anti-terrorist squad of the Rajasthan police arrested Bishnoi from Dewas district in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh on Friday. was absconding for the last six years.

“For the last five months, teams of the ATS were deputed to gather information about Bishnoi. Teams were sent in Jodhpur and Jalore to monitor the movements of hundreds of people who were suspected to know about her whereabouts,” superintendent of police (ATS) Vikas Kumar told Hindustan Times.

Technology played a major role in locating Bishnoi and a number of people who allegedly had contact with her were put under electronic surveillance, police said.

“During investigation we found that Bishnoi had a network of people who kept her abreast about the happenings in Rajasthan. These people used code words while referring to her and it took us some time to decipher the codes,” said Kumar.

Officials said Bishnoi also used to run a handicrafts business from her hideout in Dewas and ATS sleuths posing as handicrafts sellers, managed to locate her.

“After getting information about her probable whereabouts, a team of three officials went to Dewas posing as Rajasthani handicraft sellers. They continued their search for Bishnoi and finally zeroed in on the place where she was staying and arrested her,” said Kumar.

Bishnoi was absconding since 2011 and a reward of ₹ 5 lakh was also declared for information about her wherabouts.

Until now, 15 accused have been arrested in connection with the case. Former Congress legislators Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, along with former minister Mahipal Maderna are in jail.