Thaindian News

Jodhpur, Dec 10 (IANS) Rajasthan Congress legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi Saturday did not turn up for CBI interrogation in the case of missing nurse Bhawnari Devi, sources said. His relatives told probe agency officials that he was away in Delhi.

He was summoned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) a day earlier, they said.

“Malkhan Singh had been called for questioning, but he skipped it,” a CBI spokesperson told IANS.

The CBI would again call the legislator from Luni assembly constituency for questioning, he said.

Bishnoi is alleged to have been close to the nurse, who is missing since Sep 1 and is feared dead.

Bishnoi’s brother Parasram was arrested Dec 2 along with sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna, who allegedly features on a CD in a compromising position with the nurse.

It is alleged that Maderna got her killed as she was blackmailing him on the basis of the CD.

Sources said that some family members of the legislator reached the Circuit House in Jodhpur late evening to explain to the CBI investigators that the legislator was in Delhi.

Maderna alleged in a court here Friday that he was being tortured by the CBI.

When the additional judicial magistrate asked Maderna if he was ill-treated and beaten up, he said that the CBI officers slapped him and pulled his hair. The court had extended his CBI custody by three days.

The former Rajasthan minister was taken to the CBI headquarters in New Delhi for interrogation and was brought back last week.

Parasram Bishnoi was interrogated in Jodhpur during the remand period.

In the charge sheet filed before the court earlier, three men - Shahabuddin, Baliya and Sohanlal - have been charged with abduction with an intent to kill and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and various sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the case.