JOIN USIt is alleged that many Congress leaders, including former cabinet minister Mahipal Maderna, had extra-marital relations with the nurse and the woman was kidnapped at their behest after she blackmailed the former minister with a CD purportedly showing him in a compromising position with her.
The direction came when the court, which is monitoring the investigation, was hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Bhanwari’s husband Amarchand on Monday.
The CBI sought four more weeks to complete the investigation. However, the court said it wants a speedy investigation and snubbed the agency saying that it will allow the probe go awry the same way as the Arushi Talwar murder case in Noida.
The division bench comprising Justice Govind Mathur and Justice N K Jain said the “credibility of the agency was at stake and it should speed up the investigation”.
“People have faith in the CBI, live up to it. The court cannot give indefinite time,” the court told the CBI.
Maderna, who was sacked from the cabinet after he was made an accused in the case, is still in Mathura Das Mathur Hospital, where he was admitted by his family on Saturday after he suffered from chest pain and high blood pressure.
The CBI had grilled him for two consecutive days prior to that. The Congress suspended Maderna from the primary membership of party on Saturday after a CD purportedly showing him in a compromising position with nurse Bhanwari came into public domain.
In another related development, Suneel Gurjar (the foster son of Puducherry’s former Lt Governor and Congress leader Govind Gurjar), claimed that the controversial Maderna-Bhanwari tape had been with him for the past year and a half. He reportedly claimed that when he informed Maderna about it, he had said he would “take care of it”.
The controversy involving Maderna has hit the Ashok Gehlot government amid calls by opposition BJP for the chief minister’s resignation.