Bhanwari Devi murder case: Key accused Indra Vishnoi granted bail

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.

In the High Court, Indra’s lawyer Hemant Nahta submitted that she has been behind bars for more than four-and-a-half years and is being tried for the same offence as Paras Ram Vishnoi. Nahta also said Indra wants to lead defence evidence.

Ejaz Khan, Special Public Prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), countered that Indra’s case cannot be equated with that of Paras Ram since she wants to lead defence evidence, which was a major consideration for the SC while granting him bail. He also cited that she was “absconding” for more than five years and that it was “with great effort that the CBI could apprehend her” thus indicating her “least regard to law.”

However, Nahta countered that as far as her ‘absconding’ is concerned, a case was registered against her in this regard and that she has already been given two interim bails in the case, and surrendered without fail.

Eventually, Justice Dinesh Mehta relied on the SC judgment, saying that if an accused wants to lead evidence in defence, then it “hardly has any bearing on his right” of getting bail and that “she cannot be kept behind the bars, when similarly situated persons” have been given bail by the HC.

The High Court went on to say that if Khan’s argument is accepted, then “it would strike at the very right of an accused to have fair trial. Such stand of the state is violative of right to life and liberty.”

The court also considered the fact that all other co-accused have been granted bail, that she is a “woman who has already remained in custody for more than four and a half years and the evidence is over” and that keeping her “behind the bars only on the basis that she remained absconded for about five years, would be violative of her right of getting bail.” Indra, now in her mid-50s, had been arrested from Madhya Pradesh in June 2017.

Last month, the HC had given bail to former Congress minister Mahipal Maderna, former Congress MLA Malkhan Singh Bishnoi, Bhanwari Devi’s husband Amarchand, etc.

Bhanwari Devi, an auxiliary nurse midwife, allegedly possessed a video of herself with Maderna, who was eventually sacked as a minister. She went missing in September 2011. Few months later, some human remains were found by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at a canal in Jodhpur, apart from a gunny bag, wrist watch, toe ring, nose pin, broken pieces of jewellery, charred bone pieces, etc. The US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) then told the CBI that the recovered bones were of Bhanwari Devi.