Former Congress minister Maderna granted bail in Bhanwari Devi case

Senior advocate Jagmal Singh Choudhary, who has been representing Maderna, said that the bail was granted on various grounds. “First, the charges against him under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) are very weak and there is no direct evidence for 302. Second, he has been in custody since long and the SC has granted bail to a co-accused on the grounds of long custody and his grounds are similar. Third, it was also his sickness,” Singh said.

Singh said that this was the first time they had moved a regular bail plea for Maderna, currently undergoing treatment for cancer, and it was granted.

With the latest set of bails, as many as 16 of the 17 accused in the high profile case are now out on bail, bar Indira Bishnoi. What has tilted the bail pleas in favour of the accused is a Supreme Court order granting bail to one of the accused.

Last month, the Supreme Court had granted bail to Paras Ram Vishnoi in the case. Hearing Vishnoi’s plea, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy observed “that the matter in issue is a serious one and the offence is also heinous. However, we are faced with a position where the appellant, amongst other accused, has been in custody for eight and a half years.”

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 Vishnoi.

Vishnoi is the brother of former Congress MLA Malkhan Singh, who was granted bail earlier this month, along with some others.

Appearing for the CBI, Special Public Prosecutor Ejaz Khan opposed Maderna’s bail plea, saying that Maderna has clearly asserted that he wants to lead evidence in defence and, therefore, his case cannot be equated with that of Paras Ram. Khan said that Paras Ram did not want to lead evidence in defence and this was a major consideration by the Supreme Court in granting bail.

Justice Dinesh Mehta, however, said that if an accused wants to lead evidence in defence, it hardly has any bearing on his right of getting out on bail. “He cannot be kept behind the bars, when similarly situated persons have already been enlarged on bail by the Supreme Court or by this Court,” Justice Mehta said.

Maderna’s daughter Divya Maderna, Congress MLA from Osian in Jodhpur, said, “As a daughter, as a family, we have been waiting with bated breaths. But not just us, the entire farmer community was waiting for this moment.”

She said that throughout this time, the farmers and supporters kept inquiring about his health and stood by them. “For these ten years, I, my mother and younger sister never celebrated any festival. So hopefully, we will be celebrating this Diwali after ten years,” she said.

Apart from Maderna, Bhanwari Devi’s husband Amarchand, as well as Kailash Jakhar, Vishna Ram, Sohan Lal Bishnoi, Kumbharam and Shahabuddin were also granted bail.

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.