Jodhpur:
Over four months after she disappeared from near her home in September, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) today informed the Rajasthan High Court that since Bhanwari Devi had been killed and her body could not be produced, the case filed by her husband seeking that the missing nurse be found should be closed.
This official acknowledgement that the 36-year-old nurse was dead came after Rajasthan police divers last week found Bhanwari's watch, pieces of burnt bones, a tooth, a broken locket and a toe ring from the canal where her body was set on fire. The remains were then scattered into the water in the Rajiv Gandhi Lift Canal near the village of Jaloda, 100 kms from Jodhpur.
On Friday, police divers also found the bat that was used to crush Bhanwari's skull after the CBI took two of the hired hitmen who allegedly played a key role in the murder and recreated the scene of the crime near the canal.
Bhanwari's husband Amarchand Nat, who had filed a habeas corpus case seeking that the missing nurse be traced or at least her body be shown to him, has since been accused of assisting her killers and is under arrest. He was allegedly paid off to ensure that she travelled alone on the day that she was abducted from a bus.
The High Court, which is monitoring the investigation, asked the CBI to file a chargesheet in the case. The CBI has said that it would do so by February 20, a day before the next hearing in the case.
The murder case itself is being heard separately, by a Special CBI court in Jodhpur.
Bhanwari Devi had alleged affairs with political leaders including Congress leader and former state minister Mahipal Maderna, who was forced to resign after she went missing and her liaison with him became public knowledge. She was reportedly blackmailing him with a sex CD.
Mr Maderna has been arrested. So has been another Congress leader and Luni MLA Malkhan Singh, who reportedly introduced Bhanwari to him. Mr Singh has been put through DNA tests to determine if he fathered Bhanwari's youngest child.