Bones found in Rajasthan canal are of Bhanwari Devi: FBI

Making some headway in the Bhanwari Devi murder case, the Central Bureau of Investigation has been told by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the bones recovered from a canal in Rajasthan were of the auxiliary nurse.

Official sources said the American agency has conveyed to the CBI that the bones, which included the teeth and parts of skull, that were found from a canal in Jodhpur earlier this year, were that of 36-year-old Bhanwari Devi.

The CBI had recovered several items, including a gunny bag, wrist watch, toe ring, nose pin, broken pieces of jewellery (including a pendant), charred bone pieces, five teeth, wooden bat and two country-made pistols apart from some clothes (which reportedly belong to accused Kailash Jakhar), during a four-day search in the Rajiv Gandhi link canal.

While the CBI had claimed that all these recoveries were of the slain nurse and formed an important body of evidence, the agency had also sent the same to FBI, which has expertise in establishing the DNA from the dentures, the sources said.

The CBI has filed three chargesheets in the abduction and murder case against Pukhraj, Dinesh and Reshmaram who are under judicial custody here, while investigation against absconding accused Indira Bishnoi, sister of jailed member of Legislative Assembly Malkhan Singh, is pending.

The accused have been charged under section 120-B (punishment of criminal conspiracy), 364 (kidnapping or abducting for murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 302 (punishment for murder) of IPC and under SC/ST Act.

Out of the total 17 accused in the case, 16, including ruling Congress party MLAs Mahipal Maderna and Malkhan Bishnoi, are under judicial custody while Indira is absconding.

Bhanwari Devi was abducted and murdered last year.