Jodhpur, November 10
Sacked Rajasthan minister Mahipal Maderna was today quizzed by the CBI over his alleged links with missing nurse Bhanwari Devi. He is understood to have admitted that he knew her.

Agency sources said Maderna was quizzed for about six hours and he came out with “valuable information” about the case and his questioning is likely to continue tomorrow as he has assured the CBI of his “full cooperation” in the probe.

Maderna was confronted with statements of other suspects, his call records, details of his meetings with Bhanwari Devi, Sahiram and other suspects besides some recent recoveries made by the agency in the case.

The agency suspects that the 33-year-old nurse was abducted and murdered and her body burnt.

The CBI is hopeful that it will get more details from him tomorrow about the circumstances in which the nurse went missing, sources say. He has admitted that “he knew” Bhanwari and has provided “valuable information”, sources said, without elaborating.

The questioning of Maderna, removed from the Cabinet by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on October 16 after his name cropped up in the case, came as the CBI prepared to submit a status report on the probe to the Rajasthan High Court tomorrow.

In the plea, Bhanwari’s husband Amarchand had alleged that she was abducted at the behest of Maderna, who denied the charge.

The call records of cell phones used by Bhanwari Devi’s kidnappers indicate that suspect Sahiram was in touch with Maderana until the day she was kidnapped from Jodhpur’s Bilara area on September 1.

Bhanwari was posted as auxiliary nurse midwife at a sub-centre in Jaliwada village, around 120 km from Jodhpur. — PTI