Former Rajasthan minister gets bail in Bhanwari Devi case

Mahipal Maderna and former lawmaker Malkhan Singh Bishnoi are the prime accused in the abduction and murder of Devi, 36, in 2011. The CBI, which probed the case, has charged 17 people, including the Congress leaders, some of their family members, and paid assassins with the murder

The Rajasthan high court on Tuesday granted bail to seven accused, including former minister Mahipal Maderna, in the 2011 Bhanwari Devi murder case. Maderna, who was out on interim bail on health grounds, had moved a fresh application for permanent bail.

Representational Image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Maderna and former lawmaker Malkhan Singh Bishnoi are the prime accused in the abduction and murder of Devi, 36, in 2011. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed the case, has charged 17 people, including the Congress leaders, some of their family members, and paid assassins with the murder.

According to the CBI’s charge sheet in the case, Devi, a nurse, disappeared in September 2011 after a CD surfaced that showed Maderna with her amid reports that she was blackmailing him. Maderna was arrested in 2012 along with Bishnoi, who allegedly had a relationship with Devi before he introduced her to Maderna.

The CBI has alleged the two plotted together to get rid of Devi after they were fed up with meeting her demands. Devi’s remains were found in a canal in Jodhpur near a pit, where her body was allegedly set on fire, in January 2012, nearly four months after she disappeared.

Now out of the 17 accused in this case, 16 have got bail.

The Supreme Court on July 27 granted bail to one of the accused, Parasram Bishnoi, citing delay in the trial while the accused have served around 10 years in jail. The other accused moved high court after a trial court rejected their bail applications. The high court accepted their bail applications in light of the Supreme Court’s bail order.