THE CBI arrested Rajasthan BJP legislature party chief whip Rajendra Singh Rathore, a confidant of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, for his alleged role in the 2006 murder of bootlegger Dara Singh in a fake encounter.
Though it took the investigating agency nine months since its chargesheet to arrest former PWD and parliamentary affairs minister Rathore, it took them only an hour on Thursday to put the handcuffs around his wrists after he deposed at the CBI office — charging him with kidnapping, murder and conspiracy.
He was immediately produced before the link court. As the CBI didn’t seek his custody, the court sent him to judicial remand till April 9. It accepted Rathore’s request, citing ill- health, for homecooked food in prison.
The CBI has been investigating Dara Singh’s murder following a Supreme Court order in April 2010. The slain bootlegger’s wife, Sushila Devi, had moved the court accusing the state’s special operation group ( SOG) of abducting her husband and killing him in cold blood on October 23, 2006, on the outskirts of Jaipur.
CBI sources said the murder was the outcome of an intense blood feud between two liquor cartels, one of which allegedly enjoyed Rathore’s patronage.
The chargesheet filed in June 2011 says Rathore was the PWD minister in the Rajeled Rajeled BJP government when the crime was committed, and he had “ strong motive and vested interest” in getting Dara Singh killed.
It says 15 policemen, including additional DGP A. K. Jain of the special operation group, and liquor contractor Vijay Chaudhary were also involved in the crime. Rathore allegedly was frequently in touch with Jain before Dara Singh’s killing.
Altogether 16 of the accused, including Jain, are currently in judicial custody. Jain was the “ missing link” as he was absconding since then SP ( SOG) A. Ponnuchami was arrested last year. When Jain surrendered in February this year, it was evident that Rathore’s arrest was a matter of time.
With the BJP backing him to the hilt, Rathore claimed that he was victim of a political conspiracy. The party decided to launch a state- wide agitation against the arrest.
POWERFUL RAJE AIDE RATHORE
A FORMER minister, a fivetime MLA and a law graduate.
Rajendra Singh Rathore, 57, made headlines as a youth when he was linked with the murder of a freedom fighter Narayan Chaturvedi in September 1979.
Acquitted by the court, he began his political journey in 1980 when he unsuccessfully contested assembly polls as Janata Dal candidate for Jaipur’s Banipark constituency.
He reached the legislative assembly in 1990 from Churu and became deputy chief whip in the BJP- JD coalition government led by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. Following the JD split, he joined the JD ( Digvijaya) and then the BJP in 1993. He got reelected from Churu to become a minister in the subsequent government led by Shekhawat.
When the BJP decided to contest 2003 elections projecting Raje as CM, he joined her and enjoyed her confidence. After the BJP leadership removed Raje from the leader of the Opposition’s post following the party’s debacle in the 2008 assembly polls, Rathore became the party chief whip.
WHO GOT DARA?
THE bootlegger along with Vijendra Singh alias Tilia was an associate of Sumer Singh Phageria, who controlled a liquor cartel.
Their arch- rival was Virendra Singh Nyangli, another booze don who reportedly enjoyed Rathore’s patronage. In 2002, the Nyangli group shot dead Phageria after which Tilia took charge with Dara ( in picture) as his aide and driver.
Between 2003 and 2005 the gang rivalry reached its peak, forcing Dara to assume an alias, Vinod Kumar, and hide in Fatehpur and then in Guwahati in 2006. But Tilia gave away Dara’s hideout to the police.
On October 23, 2006, Dara was shot dead in a staged encounter on the outskirts of Jaipur.