Jaipur: Trial in the infamous Bhanwari Devi abduction and murder case, which had turned Rajasthan’s politics on its head in 2011, has not moved forward since 2018 because the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been unable to produce an agent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a witness in court.On Tuesday, the Rajasthan high court granted bail to former cabinet minister Mahipal Maderna, 10 years after the CBI arrested him on charges of kidnap and murder. With Maderna’s bail, 16 of the 17 accused in the case – including former Congress MLA Malkhan Singh Bishnoi and Bhanwari Devi’s husband Amarchand – are now out of jail. The 17th accused, Bishnoi’s sister Indra Bishnoi, has not moved for bail.All 16 have been released on bail on the basis of delay in trial, which has been stuck since September 2018.Mahipal Maderna. Photo: PTI/FileThe backgroundBhanwari Devi, a government auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) posted at health sub-centre in Jaliwara village of Jodhpur district, went missing in September 2011 after a sleaze CD of her engaged in a sexual act with Maderna was released. The latter was a cabinet minister in the Ashok Gehlot government and held the water resources portfolio. After the CD’s release, he was sacked from the cabinet. The case was transferred to the CBI and he was arrested on December 2, 2012.According to the CBI chargesheet, Maderna and MLA Malkhan Singh Bishnoi plotted to kidnap Bhanwari Devi because she was blackmailing them. Bishnoi, the chargesheet said, had an affair with the government nurse before he introduced her to Maderna. Bishnoi and Maderna were political rivals. In January 2012, nearly four months after her disappearance, Bhanwari Devi’s mortal remains were found in a canal in Jodhpur. The CBI said she was killed and her body burnt in a pit before it was dumped in the canal.After two top forensic laboratories, based in Delhi and Hyderabad, told the agency that the technology to test “excessively damaged samples” was not available in the country, the CBI sent the fragments to the FBI. The FBI confirmed that the bone fragments belonged to Bhanwari Devi. The report was signed by Amber Carr, who was an FBI supervisory biologist at the time. She had confirmed that the charred bones, teeth and part of the skull found in the canal were of Bhanwari Devi after the samples matched the DNA of her mother and daughter.SC’s order allows accused to get bailWhat has tilted the bail pleas in favour of the accused is a Supreme Court order granting bail to one of the accused. On July 27, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Paras Ram Vishnoi in the case. Hearing Bishnoi’s plea, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy observed:“If CBI is not able to prosecute people for years together, what are we expected to do? It is the agency which has not been able to do its job well. There is some value to people’s personal liberty. We cannot keep everyone behind bars.”The SC had observed that “some of the accused seek to lead defence evidence” and this would take time. “We are of the view that pending the trial we cannot keep a person in custody for an indefinite period of time and taking into consideration the period of custody and that the other accused are yet to lead defence evidence.” the court had said and granted bail to Paras Ram Vishnoi, who is Malkhan Singh Bishnoi’s brother.A prosecution counsel said Carr is a crucial witness in the case as she would be crucial to proving that the charred bones were of Bhanwari Devi. “She has been issued summons 20 times between May 2017 and September 2018, but she has expressed disinterest in honouring the summons citing diplomatic reasons over and over again. The trial court summons an FBI expert for the 21st time in July 2021 but she has expressed disinterest in honouring the summons, citing the COVDI-19 situation and restrictions,” said a defence counsel.To secure her witness earlier, the CBI had sought permission from both the trial court and the high court to get her examination via a video conference. But the plea had been rejected following vehement opposition by defence lawyers.Later, the Rajasthan high court, while allowing the prayer of the defence counsels, had directed the trial court to proceed with the trial by recording the accused statements, dropping Carr as the witness.Challenging this decision of the high court, the CBI had moved a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court, which had directed the trial court to proceed with a fresh summons to Carr. “But this permission has been granted on the condition that if the CBI failed again to get Carr to the court for examination, the petition would be deemed disposed of without even bringing to the notice of the court,” said a defence counsel.The CBI has been unable to produce FBI agent Amber Carr as witness. Photo: PTIThough, in compliance with the direction of the apex court, summons have been issued to Carr by the trial court, there is hardly any hope for the CBI.The high court, however, in its order in November 2019 had directed the trial court to proceed with the accused’s statements instead of holding the trial in wait of Carr but had said its order would remain subject to the decision on the CBI’s SLP in the apex court.In the opinion of legal experts, it is difficult to punish the accused without Carr’s witness. “It was from Carr’s report that the CBI established that Bhanwari Devi had died. If Carr does not appear as a witness in the trial court, then it will be very difficult to prove Bhanwari’s death legally. In this situation, the court may acquit the accused due to lack of evidence. The case is already weakened because the witnesses turned hostile. There were around 200 witnesses in this case, out of which more than 50 have turned hostile,” says Rajasthan high court lawyer Kapil Gupta.Avadhesh Akodia is an independent journalist. He tweets @AvadheshJpr.
