Bhandwari murder: CBI seeks probe against hostile witnesses

The CBI has moved a special court in Jodhpur seeking an inquiry against witnesses, who turned hostile in the Bhanwari Devi murder trial, for perjury.

The sensational case hogged media limelight in 2011 after the name of the then Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna cropped up in connection with the murder of the nurse.

The CBI has got recorded the sworn statements of several witnesses before judicial magistrates under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

But during the trial, some important witnesses turned hostile and retracted from their statements giving a jolt to the prosecution case.

Yesterday, the CBI moved the application before the special CBI court in Jodhpur to carry out an inquiry against such witnesses who were bound by the oath to state the truth during the trial but acted contrary.
 

The CBI has given a list of 18 witnesses who were to be examined by the special CBI court during the trial.

Sources in the agency refused to give details about the number and names of the witnesses who turned hostile as it may affect consideration of their plea by the court.

The CBI has so far filed three charge sheets against 17 accused including Maderna and former Congress MLA Malkhan Singh.

Among all the accused, 15 are in judicial custody, one is on bail while Indira Bishnoi has been absconding.

Bhanwari, posted as auxiliary nurse and midwife at a sub- centre in Jaliwada village, around 120 km from Jodhpur, had gone missing on September 1, 2011.

She disappeared after a CD allegedly showing Maderna in compromising position with the 36-year-old nurse became public with some news channel broadcasting its content.

The CBI said Bhanwari was allegedly abducted from Jodhpur's Bilara area on September 1, 2011 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.

Maderna (65), who then represented the Osian assembly constituency, was arrested on December 2, 2011 in Jodhpur by the CBI along with Parasram Bishnoi, brother of Malkhan Singh.