Bhanwari Devi Murder Case

Bhanwari Devi Murder Case was one one of the most complicated and complex murder cases of India. The murder rocked and shocked the people and politicians of Rajasthan as well as the whole of India. That people can go to any length to avoide their dirty linen being displayed in public is evident from the case. It is a nice candidate of case study for the students as well as scholars of the criminology.

Bhanwari Devi was born in poverty in a village in Kishangarh block of Ajmer, Rajasthan. Her parents worked as daily wage labourers; her father was also employed in the State's medical and health department. Bhanwari Devi studied in a government school only up to class 8. At the age of 16, she was married off to Amarchand of Borunda village in Jodhpur. At the behest of her father, Bhanwari Devi studied midwifery and got the job as an auxiliary midwife nurse with the jealth department. During the time of her murder, she was posted at a sub-centre in Jaliwada a village in district Jodhpur.

It is reported that it was during her time as a midwife that Bhanwari Devi got in touch with politicians mostly from then ruling Congress Party in connection with her transfers and postings. The report added that "She was quick to realise the power of lust appeal among the politicians and bureaucrats. She not only got choice postings but also arranged it for others for a price."

It was also reported that within a short span of time, Bhanwari Devi had amassed wealth beyond her corresponding means and sources of income as a midwife and led a lavish life style maintaining several houses and cars. It is said that she bought expensive gold ornaments every year on Akshay Tritiya. It is also added that her husband Amarchand remained working as a vehicle driver during this time too and he was  branded by people as a "drunkard". It seems that by the time the couple had experienced the emotional disconnect and discord. They had three children together till then. 

The report further added that Bhanwari Devi being among the politicians and witnessing the power game in the corridors of power, she herself became over ambitious with time and had demanded a ticket to contest the state election in 2013, from the Bhopalgarh constituency. Upon being unsuccessful in getting a ticket, she began to blackmail the said leaders demanding money in exchange for a 52-minute long video recording in which they were seen in compromised positions and conditions  with her. Among them were Mahipal Maderna, a cabinet minister with the Rajasthan government, and legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, the latter of who had maintained an illicit relationship with her for over a decade. She had reportedly been threatening Bishnoi of disclosing his illegitimate child in a community gathering on 7 September 2011, or give at least 20 kg of gold jewellery and spend at least ₹50 lakh on their daughter's wedding who was only seven at the time whom Bhanwari Devi had claimed to be his on account of the illicit relationship they had maintained for so many hears. She also persisted that he prepare to undergo a paternity confirmation test. 

After Mahipal Maderna appeared to be unwilling to buy her repeated claims in relation to the CD, on 24 August 2011, she leaked a part of the CD to a local television news channel and a local newspaper which carried the photographs from the CD without directly mentioning his name but giving enough clues that it was Mahipal Maderna. After the leak Bhanwari Devi reportedly went missing on 1 September 2011. Her husband alleged that she was abducted on the orders of Mahipal Maderna.

The CBI chargesheet in the Bhanwari Devi murder case describes her as a social climber with "big ambitions". Former Rajasthan cabinet minister Mahipal Maderna and Congress MLA Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, both were charged with murder, are depicted as men fond of "sura aur sundari" (wine and women).

Bhanwari Devi had threatened to go public about the tape. In the charge sheet against 13 accused, Mahipal Maderna and Malkhan Singh was charged with murder, abduction, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Amarchand, Bhanwari Devi's husband charged with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and abduction. But investigation against four persons including absconding Indira Devi are pending. In another revelation CBI said that a DNA test proved that Bhanwari's youngest daughter Gungun was fathered by Malkhan Singh Bishnoi.

The chargesheet also mentions that Bhanwari Devi made two video recordings, in different locations, showing Mahipal Maderna and herself in a "compromising position".

Under pressure from protests over Mahipal Maderna's involvement in the murder, the Rajasthan government transferred the case for investigation to the CBI on 15 September, 2011. On 23 September, 2011 a court directed the government to register an FIR against Mahipal Maderna. On being rebuked by the Rajasthan High Court about his government's inaction in the case, Chief Minister of Rajasthan  Ashok Gehlot asked Mahipal Maderna to resign from his post as a cabinet minister, who refused, following which Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot subsequently sacked Mahipal Maderna, from the state cabinet on 16 October 2011.

The CBI said that Mahipal Maderna brought in his confidante Sahiram Bishnoi, who hired Sohan Lal Bishnoi, a contractor with the Rajasthan government's Public Health Engineering Department and Bhanwari Devi's friend, to settle the issue. The Bishnois and Shahabuddin Sheikh, a criminal, hatched a plot to get hold of the CD at any cost over a series of meetings at the Circuit House in Jodhpur in the first week of August 2011, prior to Bhanwari Devi's leaking of the CD. The matter was agreed to be settled for ₹50 lakh, and the CBI said that an advance amount of ₹2.5 lakh had been paid to them by Mahipal Maderna, while a promise of paying the remaining amount by the September end was made. As per plan, Sohan Lal Bishnoi got into another deal with Bhanwari Devi; he was reportedly buying her a car, a Maruti Suzuki Swift for ₹4.5 lakh and that an advance payment of ₹50,000 had been made.

The CBI investigation revealed that on 1 September, 2011 Bhanwari Devi was lured by Sohan Lal Bishnoi to Bilara to make the remaining payment for the car. It was also subject to the verification of the CD, on board the Mahindra Bolero vehicle, belonging to Shahabuddin Sheikh, which had a video CD player. He was said to have watched the entire CD then. Once in Bilara, the gang roamed around the area with Bhanwari Devi by the car which she reportedly resisted. This was when the three strangulated her. Subsequently, under the directions of Sahiram Bishnoi, they handed her over to some unidentified persons who were on another vehicle, a Mahindra Scorpio.

On 3 November,2011 as first evidence in the case, the CBI recovered a four-minute audio clip of a conversation between Bhanwari Devi and Indira Bishnoi, the sister of Malkhan Singh Bishnoi. In the clip, the CBI said that Bhanwari Devi is heard speaking to Indira Bishnoi in Marwari language telling her that the politicians had agreed to pay her ₹7 crore in exchange for the CD, out of she would get ₹5 crore and that Sohan Lal Bishnoi would take the rest. She was also heard telling Indira Bishnoi that the contractor Sohan Lal had struck the deal with the alleged Delhi-based high-profile power broker through one Sunil Gurjar and that the payment had already been made. She reiterated that Sohan Lal somehow got hold of duplicate CDs but the original was still with her. It transpired that Sunil Gurjar, whom Bhanwari Devi referred to as the middleman between the Delhi-based buyer of the CD who tried to sell the CD, and Sohan Lal, is a relative of Puducherry's former lieutenant governor and minister of Rajasthan Govind Singh Gurjar.

In November 2011, Shahabuddin Sheikh's girlfriend Rehana Sheikh leaked the audio clip of her discussion with him in the Jodhpur Central Jail, where he was lodged, in the media. During the discussion, Shahabuddin Sheikh was reportedly heard telling her that Bhanwari Devi was handed over to the gang of Pradeep Godara, a criminal wanted by the Rajasthan Police in several cases. Shahabuddin Sheikh was also heard saying that he had been falsely implicated in the case, and did not know what happened to Bhanwari Devi. This was the third audio clip that the CBI had in its possession. During this time, the CBI while interrogating Rehana Sheikh, also questioned one Lakha Ram and Bhanwari Devi's husband Amarchand. The latter was called to identify the jewellery, reportedly seized by the CBI from a jeweller in Jodhpur. They suspected that it belonged to Bhanwari Devi and that Shahabuddin Sheikh had sold the jewellery while he was in the city soon after former went missing.

Shahbuddin Sheikh, who carried a ₹25,000 cash reward on his head, was the first to surrender before the police, on 22 October 2011. During the interrogation of Mahipal Maderna on 10 November,2011 he confessed to have been in an affair with Bhanwari Devi. The CBI filed its preliminary chargesheet on 2 December.2011. On the same night they arrested Mahipal Maderna and he was brought to Delhi two days later for interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On 8 December, Bhanwari Devi's husband Amarchand was arrested by the CBI after he gave conflicting versions during interrogation while remaining "un-cooperative". On 19 December, Malkhan Singh Bishnoi was arrested. Upon questioning by the CBI, both he and Mahipal Maderna maintained innocence.

On 4 January 2012, the CBI brought Sahiram Bishnoi face to face with Mahipal Maderna and two other accused, Sohan Lal Bishnoi and Shahabuddin Sheikh in the Jodhpur Central Jail. On the same day, the police arrested Bishna Ram Bishnoi, another accused in the case, in Pune. He was the eleventh person to be arrested in connection with the case, all of whom maintained their innocence. Kailash Jakhar, who allegedly disposed of her body, was also found following a tip-off and arrested the same day in a major breakthrough as part of the investigation. Kailash Jakhar reportedly admitted with the police to have picked up Bhanwari Devi's body from the Bishnois and Shahabuddin Sheikh in Bilara on 1 September 2011 and disposed her off by burning her remains somewhere in Jaloda, a village near Phalodi, a town in Jodhpur district. Kailash Jakhar was reportedly a member of the Bishna Ram Bishnoi Gang, which was also then wanted by the CBI and carried a cash reward of ₹5 lakh on his head. The CBI had by then already arrested Bishna Ram's brother Om Prakash Bishnoi.

On 6 January, the CBI claimed to know the whereabouts of disposal of Bhanwari Devi's body. The case was thus cracked by the CBI inside 100 days and were ready to file the final chargesheet by the end of that month.The 12 members arrested till then were::

Mahipal Maderna

Malkhan Singh Bishnoi

Sahiram Bishnoi

Sohanlal Bishnoi

Shahabuddin

Balia

Bishnaram Bishnoi

Om Prakash Bishnoi

Kailash Jakhar

Parasram Bishnoi, coordinator between the two gangs and Malkhan Singh's brother[27]

Amarchand, Devi's husband

Umeshram Bishnoi, an aide of Sahiram Bishnoi

On 17 January 2012, another of Bishnaram's gang, Ashok Bishnoi, who was allegedly involved in the disposal of Devi's body, surrendered before the police.

The 'Operation Watch' was launched to collect evidences in connection to Bhanwari Devi's murder. The Rajasthan Police and the CBI accompanied by forensic experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, were involved in it. While searching for evidence in the Rajeev Gandhi Lift Canal near the village of Jaloda and 100 kilometres (62 mi) from Jodhpur, a cricket bat that was used to hit Bhanwari Devi on the head and two country-made pistols were recovered. The bat was found wrapped in barbed wire, presumably to ensure that it sank to the bottom of the canal. Bishna Ram Bishnoi and Kailash Jakhar, both the accused in disposing of Bhawari Devi's body, were taken to the spot, to recreate the scene of the crime. At the end of the four-day search, body remains including part of a skull, five teeth and portions of it, and charred bone fragments; a ladies' wrist watch; jewellery parts such as beads of a necklace, a pendant, an earring, toe ring, nose pin and other broken pieces of jewellery were recovered, apart from a gunny bag and some clothes which reportedly belonged to Kailash Jakhar.Valuables belonging to his mother, Bhanwari Devi,were identified by her son Sahil, and she was subsequently declared dead by the Rajasthan Police.

As the bone fragments and other body parts such as teeth recovered remained unverified if they were Bhanwari Devi's, they were sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which held expertise in establishing DNA from the dentures, for verification. Prior to this, in February 2012, forensic experts from the AIIMS submitted a report stating that the bones were that of animals. In June, the FBI confirmed that they belonged to Bhanwari Devi.

In a second charge sheet the CBI projected Malkhan Singh as Bhanwari Devi's onetime partner. Malkhan Singh used her to upstage Mahipal Maderna but later allied with Mahipal Maderna to murder her. Malkhan Singh's sister Indira Devi and Bhanwari Devi planned to shoot controversial video to make it public later and malign Mahipal Maderna. But contrary to Malkhan Singh's plan Bhanwari Devi started to blackmail Mahipal Malkhan too. Additionally Indira Devi who is absconding acted as a troubleshooter for both leaders while dealing with Bhanwari Devi. Indira Bishnoi interfered whenever Bhanwari Devi threatened to go public about the tape. In the charge sheet against 13 accused, Mahipal Maderna and Malkhan Singh was charged with murder, abduction, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Amarchand, Bhanwari Devi's husband was charged with criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence and abduction. But investigation against four persons including absconding Indira Devi were pending. In another revelation CBI said that a DNA test proved that Bhanwari Devi's youngest daughter Gungun was fathered by Malkhan Singh Bishnoi.