Thaindian News

Jodhpur, Feb 12 (IANS) Hundreds of people from the Bishnoi community took out a massive rally here Sunday in protest against the alleged harassment of a Rajasthan Congress legislator’s 80-year-old mother by the CBI in the missing nurse Bhanwari Devi case.

Amari Devi is the mother of legislator Malkhan Singh Bishnoi who has been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the case. She is the wife of late Ram Singh Bishnoi, a prominent leader of the community.

The protesters alleged that the CBI was harassing her in the name of investigations, a charge which the investigating agency denied.

According to a press release issued by Rajasthan Police on behalf of the CBI, the agency never summoned her for questioning.

The Bishnoi community leaders have also written to the National Human Rights Commission demanding that a case be registered against CBI officials for alleged harassment of Amari Devi.

The protesters alleged that she was hospitalised last week after she appeared before the CBI for questioning here for two consecutive days.

They alleged that the Congress government in the state was attempting to malign the image of the two most powerful political families in this region by implicating them in the Bhanwari Devi case.

They said that the family members of Parasram Maderna, a prominent Jat leader, and Ram Singh Bishnoi were being harassed.

Parasram’s son Mahipal Maderna, a former minister, and Ram Singh’s son Malkhan Singh Bishnoi have been arrested by the CBI in the case.

Parliamentarian from Hisar in Haryana Kuldeep Bishnoi, while addressing a gathering of the community members, said that it was a conspiracy on the part of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to malign the image of the two families.

It is alleged that three men Shahabuddin, Sohan Lal and Baldev Jat alias Balia kidnapped Bhanwari Devi from Bilara in Jodhpur rural Sep 1, killed her and then handed her body to a gang of criminals headed by Bishnaram Bishnoi who burnt her to ashes and dumped her remains in a canal.

Bishnaram Bishnoi and his three accomplices — Kailash Bishnoi, Omprakash Bishnoi and Umesharam Bishnoi — have also been arrested by the CBI. Bhanwari Devi, shown in a compromising position with Mahipal Maderna in a CD, had gone missing Sep 1 last year.