The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has stumbled upon clues suggesting that missing nurse Bhanwari Devi had relations with three Rajasthan ministers and three senior officials besides sacked minister Mahipal Maderna who allegedly features on a CD in a compromising position with her, officials said on Sunday.
The CBI has come across huge wealth amassed by the nurse despite the fact that she drew a salary of only Rs.8,000 per month. The agency is investigating her source of income also.
Bhanwari Devi had gone missing from Jodhpur's Bilara area on September 1. Maderna was sacked from the cabinet by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on October 16 over allegations that he had a role in her disappearance after she started blackmailing him on the basis of a CD showing both in a compromising position.
"The CBI has got clues that Bhanwari had relations with not only Maderana, but also some other prominent and powerful people in the state including three ministers and three IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers," a senior police officer, who did not want to be named, told the media.
However, the officer refused to divulge the name of these politicians and bureaucrats.
Sources said that the CBI had recently recovered CDs from the house of Sohan Lal Vishnoi, a key suspect in Bhanwari Devi kidnapping case who has been arrested by the police.
"It is possible that Bhanwari was blackmailing not only Maderna, but some other people also on the basis of sex CDs," said the officer.
A CBI team is in the state's Ajmer city to search a bank locker there. They are looking for an alleged CD showing her in a compromising position with Maderna could have been hidden in it.
In one of the two audio clips, which surfaced on Thursday and Friday, Bhanwari Devi mentions about a CD hidden in a bank locker in Ajmer.
The audio clip, which surfaced on Thursday has Bhanwari Devi in a telephonic conversation allegedly with legislator Malkhan Singh's sister Indra in Rajasthani dialect.
Another audio clip had her speaking with Vishnoi.