New Delhi:
Three days after he was arrested in connection with the disappearance of auxiliary nurse-midwife Bhanwari Devi, sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna is being questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today.
CBI officials, who brought him to Delhi yesterday, claim that they have evidence against Mr Maderna suggesting that he was in touch with Bhanwari Devi around the time that she went missing on September 1.
The officials also allege that Mr Maderna was in touch with the key conspirator in the case, Sahiram Bishnoi, who is missing and that they were speaking regularly on the phone from September 1 to September 7.
The suspects arrested in the case have reportedly told the CBI that that they abducted Bhanwari Devi but subsequently handed her over to another gang which killed her.
The CBI claims to have found the jewellery that Bhanwari Devi was wearing and the purse which she was carrying when she disappeared. But it is yet to come across forensic evidence establishing that she had indeed been killed.
The agency is hoping that by bringing Mr Maderna away from his supporters in Rajasthan, he will open up and provide the clues now needed to crack the case.
Mr Maderna was arrested on Friday after the CBI filed a chargesheet in the Rajasthan High Court, naming him and three other accused, Shahabuddin, Sohan Lal and Balia.
Parasram Bishnoi, the brother of Congress MLA from Luni, Malkhan Singh, was also arrested for his alleged involvement in the case.
Bhanwari Devi went missing from Bilada near Jodhpur. Her husband, Amarchand Nat, has alleged that she was abducted at the behest of Mr Maderna and his associates, that she has been killed and that her body is still missing.
On the basis of several tapes and audio clips which it has reportedly recovered, the CBI has been investigating whether Bhanwari Devi tried to blackmail Mr Maderna for money, threatening to make their relationship public. A CD was circulated when she went missing from her home near Jodhpur.
Mr Maderna was questioned extensively by the CBI last month and had reportedly confessed to having had a relationship with the 36-year-old auxiliary nurse-midwife. He, however, denied any link to her disappearance.
The case had come as a huge embarrassment for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who was forced to drop Mr Maderna from his cabinet on October 16, after a court direction that a case of abduction and murder be registered against him. Mr Maderna, who represents Osian assembly constituency, was later suspended from the Congress.
The CBI took over the probe in October and investigations are being monitored by the High Court.