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Bhanwari case: Vehicle used to abduct her found
A vehicle that was used for allegedly abducting Bhanwari Devi, a nurse in Rajasthan, was recovered on Saturday from Kanodar village near here in Banaskantha district, police said.
The vehicle, in which Rajasthan's auxiliary nurse midwife Bhanwari Devi was allegedly abducted at the behest of a state cabinet minister last month, was located in Gujarat on Saturday.
"We recovered the dark green Bolero bearing number plate RJ 19 UA 3950 near Kanodar village in Palanpur district of Gujarat (bordering Rajasthan)," said Inder Singh, station house officer of Pipad police station in Jodhpur.
Bhanwari, 36, a resident of Borunda village in Jodhpur district, went to Bilara on September 1 to collect payment for a car she had sold to Sohan Lal Bishnoi.
When she did not return, her husband Amar Chand lodged an FIR accusing state public health engineering department (PHED) and water resources minister Mahipal Maderna of kidnapping and murdering his wife with the help of Bishnoi, a PHED contractor. It has been alleged that Bhanwari was in possession of a sex CD of herself with Maderna.
Maderna was later charged with kidnapping, rape and murder on a court directive.
On September 30, the Jodhpur police arrested one of the main accused Baldev alias Balia, who, the police say, revealed the whereabouts of the vehicle during interrogation. Baldev told police the brother of Shahbuddin, another accused in the case, works as a contractor in Gujarat.
Singh led a police team to Gujarat on Friday and recovered the vehicle from the garage of one Parvez Khan, who told police Shahbuddin had brought the Bolero to his garage on September 9. "Khan told us Shahbuddin was accompanied by his lover Rehana and two children and that he gave Khan R10,000 to repair the car."
