Jaipur:
Former Water Resources minister in the Rajasthan government, Mahipal Maderna, arrested in connection with the Bhanwari Devi case, has been sent to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till December 9.
Mr Maderna was named in the first chargesheet filed by the CBI today. The chargesheet was filed in the Rajasthan High Court and names three other accused, Shahabuddin, Sohan Lal and Balia.
Mr Maderna has been questioned extensively by the CBI over the auxiliary midwife-nurse's disappearance. The court asked the CBI to clarify how his name figured in the chargesheet even though he had not been taken into custody yet.
The other three are already in jail.
36-year-old Bhanwari Devi went missing from Bilada near Jodhpur on September 1. Her husband, Amarchand Nat, has alleged that she was abducted at the behest of Mr Maderna and his associates, and that she has been killed.
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.
During questioning by the CBI in November, Mr Maderna reportedly confessed to having had a relationship with Bhanwari Devi. He had, however, denied any role in her disappearance. He told the agency that he was introduced to Bhanwari Devi by Pushkar Singh, the Congress MLA from Luni.
The CBI took over the probe in October. Investigations are being monitored by the High Court, which had asked the agency to expedite the probe since its credibility was at stake.
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 was later suspended from the Congress.