Thaindian News

Jodhpur, Sep 15 (IANS) The Rajasthan government has ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the disappearance of an auxiliary nurse and midwife who allegedly features in a CD showing her in a compromising situation with a state minister.

Meanwhile, nurse Bhanwari Devi’s husband Thursday threatened to immolate himself if his wife, who went missing from here since Sep 1, is not found soon.

“I suspect my wife has been killed. If not, she must be recovered soon. I suspect the involvement of a state minister in her kidnapping,” Amarchand told reporters here.

“I will set myself on fire in public if the government doesn’t take speedy action in the matter,” he added.

The CD in question reportedly shows state Public Health and Water Resources Minister Mahipal Maderana with Bhanwari Devi.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot held a meeting of senior police officers in Jaipur Wednesday night and decided that an impartial enquiry by the CBI should be conducted, a senior police officer said.

Maderana is also believed to have met Gehlot in Jaipur the same evening.

Gehlot had earlier claimed that unless the alleged CD comes up before police, allegations of immoral activity against the minister could not be made. However, the government was forced to order the CBI probe after mounting political pressure.

After Bhanwari Devi’s disappearance from Bilara area, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged the minister’s hand in her kidnapping and asked for a CBI probe.

Bhanwari Devi, who has remained absent from duty since Aug 25, was reported missing Sep 1 and a missing complaint was lodged by her husband the next day. The missing complaint then turned into a kidnapping case and police arrested a government contractor who had allegedly handed her over to a gang in Shekhawati region in Rajasthan.

It was alleged that the gang took her to Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district.

Police of both the states have denied reports that her body had been recovered from a grave in Jhansi Wednesday.

“The rumours are baseless and we are still on the trail of kidnappers,” a senior police officer, who did not want to be named, told IANS.

Mahipal Maderana, the son of prominent Jat community leader Parasram Maderana, represents Osian constituency of Jodhpur in the state assembly.

Sources close to the chief minister Gehlot told IANS that Maderana has offered to resign. However, Gehlot is yet to decide on the matter.