Bhanwari Devi case: CBI getting threats, court told

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) told the Rajasthan High Court Tuesday that investigators and witnesses were getting threats in the missing nurse Bhanwari Devi case.

The bench of Justice Govind Mathur and Justice K.C. Joshi asked CBI counsel Panne Singh to submit these claims in writing.

The CBI’s assertion came during the hearing on a habeas corpus petition filed by Bhanwari Devi’s husband Amarchand for tracing his missing wife. Amarchand filed the plea before he was arrested by the CBI on charges of being involved in the conspiracy of his wife’s disappearance.

The court deferred the hearing on the petition till Feb 27.

The CBI’s counsel told the court that the agency had arrested some influential people in the matter following which the investigating officers were getting threats and witnesses were turning hostile.

Amarchand, who was arrested Dec 8 by the CBI, had Sep 20 filed the petition in the high court accusing some influential people of being involved in his wife’s abduction.

Bhanwari Devi, who allegedly features in a compromising position with sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna in a CD, had gone missing Sep 1 last year. She is believed to have been murdered and her body burnt.

Maderna and Congress legislator from Luni constituency Malkhan Singh are among those who have been arrested in the case.

“The case has almost been cracked as the remains of the nurse’s body have been recovered. Her son Sahil has confirmed that some of the items recovered from a 25-ft-deep crater and the canal, including a watch and some jewellery, belong to her,” said a source close to the CBI.

Teams of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory and the CBI recovered two guns, a gunny bag, a bat, some bone fragments, a charred mobile phone, earrings, a locket, a watch and bracelet during a search that continued for three days.